News

2021

February

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• Here’s how to get a consumer complaint before the right pair of eyes. That beautiful birthday bouquet started to wilt within hours. Those pricey running shoes split apart in two months after only a few miles of use. You drove an hour along icy roads to have your

• Are you putting too much money toward your debt?. Whether you have outstanding credit card balances, student loans or a mortgage, paying off your debt is a sound money move that just about any financial expert would recommend. CNBC Select spoke with three financial

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• Your car insurer may be using pre-pandemic mileage to set 2021 rates. A former LAPD detective discovered that his car insurer had quadrupled his pandemic mileage estimate to justify a rate increase.

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• On the post-pandemic horizon, could there be an economic boom?. Signs of economic life are picking up, and mounds of cash are waiting to be spent as the virus loosens its grip.

• After mass outages, some TX residents face huge electricity bills. Millions of Texas residents suffered last week when a winter storm caused a statewide electrical grid failure. But those who had power, even intermittently, are also paying a price—literally. Many residents face enormous

• Airbnb is driving hosts elsewhere with costly pandemic policies. While there had always been tensions between Airbnb and its four million hosts around the world, a rift has widened in the pandemic after the company changed its cancellation policy and hosts saw what little

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• Financial reform can make the U.S. stronger. The pandemic has shown that the financial system is still too fragile. Here’s how President Biden should fix it.

• The Texas weather is a chilling reminder of our battered power grid. This is a job for the federal government. By law and by regulation, Congress and the Biden administration should set standards for efficiency and reliability that local utility companies must meet, and provide grants and

• Mobile home dwellers hit even harder when facing eviction. Affordable housing advocates have celebrated the Biden administration's extension of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's moratorium on evictions as a critical move that could help people fight to stay in their

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• Tax season 2021: A tornado is coming. With two — potentially three — sets of stimulus payments and an overworked IRS staff dealing with all those extra demands, plenty could go wrong with tax season this year. Here's a preview.

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• Use pandemic relief to turn renters into homeowners. Among the most daunting of President Biden's challenges is the impending tidal wave of evictions that could wash the more than 12,000,000 American families who are more than $5,000 behind on their rent out of their

• Credit report errors have gotten worse during Covid. Complaints about credit reports accounted for more than 50 percent of all consumer complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in 2020. Incorrect information on credit reports was the top complaint according to the CFPB. In

• HUD to expand fair housing protections. The Department of Housing and Urban Development will issue guidance to investigate complaints of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, expanding civil rights protections for LGBTQ people seeking housing or temporary shelter across

• Many arrested for Capitol riot had history of financial trouble. Nearly 60 percent of the people facing charges related to the Capitol riot showed signs of prior money troubles, including bankruptcies, notices of eviction or foreclosure, bad debts, or unpaid taxes over the past two decades,

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• Send parents money. The United States government helps parents in a few ways — but none of the benefits are simple to get, or available to everyone. The benefits have different eligibility requirements and complicated paperwork. And most

• FHFA extends mortgage forbearance for up to 15 months. Borrowers with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may be eligible for an additional forbearance extension of up to three months, the Federal Housing Finance Agency. FHFA forbearance plans

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• How afraid should corporate America be of Biden?. During the first weeks of the Biden administration, Americans have been treated to an unusual sight in Washington: regulators who believe in regulation. Donald Trump seemed to scour the earth for candidates who would produce

• Evictions and debt could spike when COVID rent comes due. Millions of Americans unable to pay their rent during the pandemic face a snowballing financial burden that threatens to deplete their savings, ruin their credit and drive them from their homes. A patchwork of government

• Democrats speed ahead on economic aid package. Democrats took the first step to push through President Biden’s $1.9 trillion economic rescue plan, using a budgetary maneuver that could eventually allow the measure to become law without Republican support. The move advanced

• Ahorros agotados, crédito arruinado: ¿Qué sucede cuando se vence la renta?. Millones de estadounidenses que no pueden pagar la renta durante la pandemia enfrentan una carga financiera en aumento que amenaza con agotar sus ahorros, arruinar su crédito y expulsarlos de sus domicilios.