Finance Globe

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) testified today to the U.S. House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit of the Committee on Financial Services that the agency has completed most of the consumer credit protection projects required by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction (FACT) Act of 2003, also known as FACTA.The FACT Act was signed into law by President George W. Bush as an amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Since 2004, this legislation...

New claims for jobless benefits showed slight improvement for the week ending March 13, the Department of Labor reported on Thursday in its weekly report.There were 457,000 new claims last week, down 5,000 from the previous week after a drop of 6,000 in the week prior. The four-week moving average, which smooths out weekly volatility, fell by 4,250 to 471,250. These numbers show very little change from February and are well above the readings in January.Continuing...

Vacations are time to bond, have fun with your family and friends, see new sites, and take a breather from real life. But the financial woes of the past couple of years have really got consumers thinking about more cost effective ways to get the same result in various aspects of their lives, and the family vacation is one area where we can easily spend a lot of money if we're not careful. The majority of...

This article is the second in a two-part series. Camping is a great alternative for the budget-conscious family vacation! Other benefits to camping compared to traditional flying/lodging/dining vacations: You travel with your own stuff, instead of renting a bed someone else slept in. There's nothing worse on vacation than reserving high-priced lodging because it seems nice on the website, only to get there and find that it doesn't look or smell clean - if you're travelling...

The U.S. Census Bureau announced on Friday that advanced estimates of February retail trade sales were $355.5 billion. This is an increase of .3% from the previous month after a .1% rebound in January, and is 3.9% above February 2009. This beat analysts' projections, who as a group expected a decline of .3%. It was expected that February's winter storms that hit much of the Mid-Atlantic could have negatively affected retail sales figures. February's numbers look...

The over-the-month unemployment rate for January rose in 30 states, fell in 9 states, and remained the same in 11 states, according to a report released Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).Over the past year, the unemployment rate rose in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The national unemployment rate fell from 10% in December to 9.7% for January, but it is still two percentage points above what it was in January...

Since 2006, Lifelock Inc. ads have claimed that it could prevent identity theft for consumers willing to sign up for its $10-a-month service. The company even went so far as to put the CEO's social security number on the side of a truck in big, bold print as if daring any identity thief to steal it.The Federal Trade Commission reported today that Lifelock, Inc. has agreed to a $12 million settlement for making false claims to...

In the next stage of implementing the credit card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (CARD Act), the Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday proposed new rules to cut cardholder's late fees and interest rates.The rules will amend Regulation Z, the Truth in Lending Act, and are set to go into effect in August 2010. The CARD Act, signed into law by President Obama in May of 2009, was set to go into full effect in...

The unemployment situation changed very little with 14.9 million unemployed persons in February, and the unemployment rate held steady at 9.7%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported today. Non-farm payroll employment fell by 36,000 in February and has fallen by 8.4 million since the start of the recession in December 2007.White House advisor Christina Romer said in a statement, "Although the labor market remains severely distressed, today’s report on the employment situation is consistent with...

The Internal Revenue service sent out an announcement on Monday to inform taxpayers that more than $1.3 billion in tax refunds are due to nearly 1.4 million people who did not file a 2006 tax return.The IRS gives taxpayers a three-year window for claiming refunds for prior tax years - after that the refund becomes the property of the U.S. Treasury and the taxpayer misses out permanently. The deadline to claim the 2006 refund is April...