Stephen Brobeck
Stephen Brobeck
Stephen Brobeck is the director of the Consumer Federation of America...
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Banks are hypocritical to seek bankruptcy restrictions when their irresponsible marketing and extension of credit card debt has been an important cause of rising personal bankruptcies.
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This is an important finding because those who know their personal wealth are more likely to spend, borrow and save sensibly.
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We recommend that consumers shift their funds from traditional savings to CDs and from banks to credit unions. If everyone did so they would earn about $40 billion more in interest annually. That's an average of about $400 per household.
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Check the terms and conditions, particularly the grace period and fee levels -- whether or not there's an annual fee -- and interest rates.
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We project for all households in the Northeast, oil and heat bills will be 35 percent higher than last year and that for households in the Midwest, gas bills will be 50 percent higher. Low and moderate income households will be clobbered by these oil and gas price hikes.
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The fees continue to rise but bear little relation to actual costs.
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It's discouraging. What we see is little change in the assets of the typical American household between 2001 and 2004, after substantial increases in the previous six years.
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It's important to pay attention to any mailings from issuers for changes in terms and conditions,
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You basically charge what the traffic will bear.
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Those who have obtained their scores know significantly more about credit scores than those who have not,
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This is not on the radar screen of the banking industry right now. They're not interested in small depositors.
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They simply do not understand the power of making small regular contributions.
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The bottom line for consumers is potentially billions of dollars a year in additional charges, fees, and higher interest rates and lower yields on savings.
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Banks are increasingly monitoring profitability. If you have borrowed a lot of money or have tens of thousands of dollars in a money market account, they won't want to lose you.