The Freedom From Debt Blog

With the new laws designed to protect credit card holders from unfair practices set to go into effect next year, many credit card companies are taking action now to shore up profits. Recently, several major credit card companies have started raising interest rates.  Many consumers have also seen their credit limits cut, which in turn [...]

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Thousands of borrowers who have student loans with Sallie Mae, the nation’s largest student loan lender, are seeing their credit scores plummet due to an error in Sallie Mae’s reporting to credit bureaus.  The error affects borrowers who are using the company’s graduated payment plan, which allows the borrow to make smaller payments, at times low enough to [...]

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The House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday aimed at slowing down the rapidly rising costs of secondary education and decreasing the burden of student debt.  Despite strong opposition from the Bush administration, the bill passed easily by a vote of 354-58.  The legislation proposes to establish a list, published by the federal Education [...]

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A Senate Subcommittee held a hearing on Tuesday to investigate many common practices of credit card companies.  The committee is concerned that many of these practices could be unfair and potentially abusive to consumers. Pay on Time Every Month, Have Your Interest Rate Raised One issue at the center of the hearing was the case of [...]

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Most of us are well aware of phishing scams, foreign lotteries, and other common frauds and have taken the necessary precautions to protect ourselves from these scams.  However, there are several other forms of identity theft that are a bit less publicized.  Fraudulent Credit Card Charges We all know that it is very possible for [...]

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With the recent mortgage crisis and current wave of foreclosures, many homeowners are now facing the prospect of losing their homes.  Many of these homeowners are looking anywhere they can for help, but most do not know where to turn. Unfortunately, many unscrupulous businesses are preying on the vulnerability and desperation of many of these [...]

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Recession is a nasty word that nobody likes to hear. For this reason, many economists shy away from declaring a recession. However, here are three reasons that we believe a recession is imminent.   Negative Job Growth   August 2007 is the first time in four years that we had negative job growth. There are [...]

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