Finance Globe

Last year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau began publishing summary data about consumer complaints in an online database. At first, the database only included details about credit card complaints. But, a few days ago, the bureau updated the database to include complaints on all categories taking the number of complaints from 19,000 to over 90,000. Consumers can view the complaints, create filters and reports on the data by going to ConsumerFinance.gov/ComplaintDatabase. Financial Products With the Most...

The Federal Trade Commission has long been warning consumers against advance fee loan scams where scammers trick consumers into wiring a fee to receive a loan. There are all kinds of variations of this scam, but you could generally spot the scams by the fact that you were being asked to wire money. Scammers have a new twist: they’re asking unsuspecting consumers to send money via Green Dot MoneyPaks. You can fund a Green Dot prepaid...

If you’re looking for an additional deduction to help lower this year’s tax bill, consider the home office deduction. Your home office doesn’t necessarily have to be an entirely separate room. Even a section of a room can often qualify for the deduction, but the space has to be your principal place of business. What Qualifies as a Home Office? The IRS has a fairly straightforward test to help you figure out whether your office qualifies...

Before you get your hopes up about a great pre-approved credit card offer you received in the mail, you should know those terms aren’t guaranteed. Once you apply for the credit card, you could receive a credit card with terms higher than what you applied for. For example, you could be pre-approved for a credit card with a 0% introductory rate on balances or purchases for a certain period of time. Once you apply, the credit...

U.S. banks earned $32 billion in revenue from overdraft fees in 2012, according to Moebs Services, an economic research firm. That’s $32 billion in fees that consumers paid to banks because they, the account holders, didn’t have enough money in their accounts to cover charges. Two Democratic representatives have introduced a bill that, if passed, would limit the amount of and instances when overdraft fees can be charged. The Overdraft Protection Act would prevent banks from...

With most of our paychecks being directly deposited into our bank accounts, a trip to the ATM is almost always necessary if you want to have cash on hand. That can often mean taking a trip to an ATM. A visit to a bank other than your own typically means you’ll have to pay a fee to the ATM owner and sometimes even to your bank, too. Many ATMs have disclosed their fee on a sticker...

You may have read it over and over again – a budget is a good thing – but that doesn’t make the process of budgeting any easier. Sticking to a budget can be as difficult as sticking to a diet. Dieting is often difficult because you have to retrain yourself to eat healthy and stay away from unhealthy foods. Part of you still wants those unhealthy foods because it’s what you’re used to; it’s what you’re...

Victims who were tricked by an alleged health care scam will be receiving refund checks in the mail thanks to efforts by the Federal Trade Commission.The FTC is sending out $1.1 million worth of checks to over 50,000 consumers, and recipients of the checks have 60 days to cash them. Victims of the purported scam fell were tricked into believing they were buying government-endorsed health insurance, when in fact they were paying for a worthless medical...

The IRS already had delays with tax refunds for millions of consumers. Now, an H&R block tax preparation error leads to delayed refunds for about 660,000 taxpayers. The affected taxpayers were those whose returns included Form 8863 for claiming educational credits. Returns are delayed for those taxpayers for up to six weeks. The error was caused, in part, because of a change to IRS requirements for “no” response boxes. In the past, a blank box constituted...

Most of us have some type of monthly service that we don’t want to have ended abruptly – like water or electricity, for example. So, if your service provider calls you saying that you’ve missed a payment and need to make one immediately to avoid interruption, you may be eager to give up your bank account or credit card number. But, in an attempt to preserve your good account standing, you could be giving your financial...