Finance Globe

Bank of America announced last week that it would repay the entire $45 billion received from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).Paying back the funds would allow the North Carolina-based bank to break free of the federal government's restrictions and save approximately $3.6 billion annually in interest payments to the government. BofA has already paid $2.54 billion in dividends to the U.S. Treasury since the bank initially received TARP funding.And on Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury Department...

Getting your first credit card is a major stepping stone to financial independence. It's nice to be able to cover surprise expenses or emergencies without having to borrow money from relatives. You will have the freedom to make purchases based on an anticipated paycheck. Even if you're smart enough to only buy things when you have the cash, it's important to establish your credit history now. After showing a history of responsible credit card use, you...

I received an automated call a couple of months ago. After listening to the message from the other end, I thought it sounded strangely like my credit card company was calling me to give me a better interest rate - but when has that ever happened? The recording said that they were calling from "card services" so I pushed whatever number they told me to and was transferred to a real person.The salesperson sounded very excited...

Existing home sales in October surged 10.1% as the first-time home buyer credit continues to drive sales, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported today.Existing homes sales last month were at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 6.10 million units, which includes single-family homes, townhomes, condos, and co-ops. The October pace of sales activity was 23.5% higher than they were a year ago, and is the highest it's been since February 2007.Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, was...

Consumers have until December 7, 2009 to make a comment on the recently issued proposal to amend the "Free Credit Report Rule" (formally the Free Annual File Disclosures Rule), the The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced today.The FTC posted the proposed rule on their website on October 7, 2009 and stated that public comments were to be submitted no later than November 30, 2009 - but decided to extend the deadline for another week after recent...

Delinquencies for loans on one to four-unit homes rose to a seasonally-adjusted rate of 9.64% of all outstanding mortgages in the U.S. for the third quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported today. Non-adjusted, the delinquency rate rose from 8.86% in the second quarter to 9.94% in the third quarter.The mortgage delinquency rate is the highest on record since the MBA began keeping track in 1972. Loans are counted as delinquent when they are behind by...

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation's consumer protection agency against fraudulent, deceptive, and abusive business practices, has issued a warning to consumers to not fall prey to various money transfer scams that crooks have been using to steal your money.The scams may start out in a number of ways, but many of them involve asking the consumer to send money by MoneyGram or Western Union, since it is difficult to trace the recipient of the...

Builder confidence in the market for newly-built single-family homes remained unchanged at a low level in November, according to a report released on Tuesday by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) remains at 17 for November - signalling that many builders see the current conditions as extremely disappointing. The index that gauges builders sales expectations for the next six months rose two points from October to 28. A...

On Monday, as part of its effort to increase consumer protections, the Federal Reserve Board announced proposed new rules that would restrict the fees and expiration dates that may eat up the value of gift cards.The rules would protect consumers from unexpected costs associated with not using the gift card right away, and also requires issuers to clearly state the terms and conditions of the gift card.Currently, many issuers of gift cards begin to deduct a...

New jobless claims for the week ending November 7 was 502,000, seasonally-adjusted, which is down 12,000 from the previous week's revised figure 514,00, the Department of Labor (DOL) reported on Thursday. The four-week moving average, which smooths out volatility, was 519,750, down 4,500 from the previous week's revised average of 524,250.The advance number for seasonally-adjusted insured unemployed during the week ending October 31 was 5,631,000 - down 139,000 from the preceding week's revised number of 5,770,000....