Credit Cards From Largest Banks Would Break New Law, Pew Says (click title to entry - thank you)
By Alexis Leondis and Peter Eichenbaum
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- None of the credit cards offered online by the 12 largest U.S. banks would meet requirements of new federal curbs on the industry’s rates and fees, a report from the Pew Charitable Trusts said.
All of the cards surveyed used practices considered “unfair or deceptive” by the Federal Reserve, according to the report released today by the Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization. The study examined almost 400 cards advertised by banks and credit unions and compared terms for cards offered in July 2009 and December 2008.
The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act, which takes effect in stages, will require banks to apply payments to higher-rate balances first, limit rate increases and ban practices such as “universal default,” or raising rates based on a missed payment with another lender. Most of those rules are scheduled to begin Feb. 22; others such as limits on gift-card fees are set to start Aug. 22....
Posted: Oct. 27, 2009
Home loan trapped in bank's failure (click here)
Work halts on barrier-free house
BY GRETA GUESTFREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
When Richard and Caroline Rapp of Ray Township closed on their home construction loan in August, they felt certain they would soon realize their 14-year dream to live in a barrier-free home....
...Now the builder and I are on the hook for $65,000 and the house has just started," said Rapp, who can see the half-finished home from the rental house where he has lived since his 1995 Wave Runner accident. "The builder poured the basement, they got the lumber and roughed the house in. That was as far as they got."...
E-Trade has debt? They are extending credit to their subscribers? No. No. People will lose their homes if they are 'playing' with their assets. No. No. No. It is too easy to click and lose all the equity in one's home in about 60 seconds.
Oct. 27, 2009, 6:05 p.m. EDT
E-Trade reports $832 million quarterly loss (click here)
Excluding impact of debt exchange, results top analysts' estimates
...The results included a noncash charge for extinguishing debt because the company completed a $1.74 billion debt exchange during the third quarter. That knocked roughly $773 million, or 61 cents a share, off the results....
SBA loans are on the rebound (click here)
The number made in Southern California from April through September rises 50% from the previous six-month period.
By Cyndia Zwahlen
October 27, 2009
...Lenders made 2,000 local loans backed by the Small Business Administration from April through September, a 50% increase compared with 1,330 loans made in the first half of the government's fiscal year....
