Personal finance from around the web:
Chase unveiled changes to the rewards program on its Freedom card this week. Now customers will be able to earn 5%, instead of just 3%, cash back on certain spending categories. [Chase, eCreditDaily]
Meanwhile, Chase is also sending out new cardmember agreements stating that "your account may be in default if [...]
The employment picture is improving. Housing demand is rising. The stock market is rallying and the Dow is up nearly 50% since March. Newsweek even declared the recession over in a recent cover story. So, maybe it isn’t a surprise that consumers appear to be returning to their free-spending ways even before the Great Recession [...]
So is Craigslist a handy free alternative to newspaper classifieds — a sort of virtual flea market and community bulletin board — or is it a haven for criminals and creeps looking to rip you off or worse?
What’s gotten me thinking about this perennial question is a lurid and depressing expose of the Craigslist [...]
Five months after launching the Home Affordable program designed to keep millions of Americans from losing their homes to foreclosure, the Obama administration had to summon mortgage executives to D.C. in late July to ask: What gives? So far, 230,000 loan modifications are up and running. That represents just 15% of the homes that were [...]
Maybe it’s a sign that recession really is easing: Once again we’re hearing arguments that you can save a lot less for retirement than the financial services industry would have you believe.
The last time this argument got much traction was in early 2007, when the housing market was still bubbling. Now John Rekenthaler, the well-respected [...]