Quick Credit Cards

Ever sincethe 2009 federalcrackdown on abusive credit card practices set out to expose companies that unfairly charged consumers to use their cards, a number of other credit card abuses have been discovered.

According to a report released by the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act and a study from the Pew Health Group’s Safe Credit Cards Project, while most of the practices deemed unfair or deceptive by the Federal Reserve have disappeared, credit card companies have come up with new harmful behaviors to take their place.

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Q: Is there an American Express for fair credit scores? I know Amex is a lot pickier than other credit cards and my credit is only fair because I have a couple past blemishes. Do you think there’s any chance of me getting approved for an American Express card?

A: Thanks for your email Julie. Indeed, American Express is known to arguably be the most stringent credit card issuer out there. This is even more true today, now that we are recovering from the credit crunch of ’08-’09. If yo

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Foreclosures in Honolulu surge

While some cities in the Continental U.S. have seen the rates of foreclosure slowing in recent months, the numbers have been skyrocketing in Hawaii’s capital.

According to a report in the Honolulu Star, the number of properties in the city that were foreclosed on by banks in the first six months of the year rose more 70 percent from the same period in 2009. The report, which cited regional statistics from the real estate research firm RealtyTrac, found that there were 2,784 foreclosure filings in Honolulu, an increase of 72.3 percent. Full Post…

Right now, the Obama administration wants to help small businesses get loans by injecting $30 billion in to community banks.  This will allow up to $300 billion in new loans to small businesses.

As reported by Bloomberg news the other day, experts have doubts about this plan: “Bankers say the problem isn’t scarce credit, it’s lack of demand from creditworthy firms in a weak economy. The result may be more loans given to distressed firms and higher losses.”

I continue to be puzzled why so many experts and those in our government do not understand that the bad economy has rapidly stressed the root of the problem, individual credit scores.  After a

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