The Latest
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Beware: You Don't Have to Pay for Help With Your Student Loans
To provide relief to student loan borrowers during the COVID-19 emergency, federal student loan borrowers were automatically placed in forbearance, which allows you to temporarily stop making monthly loan payments.
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‘Revenge Shopping' Expected to Ramp Up in Coming Weeks
Making up for lost time. Are you ready to hit the stores? “Revenge shopping” is a theory that as restrictions loosen, people will head to the stores and spend a lot of money as revenge for being cooped up for so long. “There’s a pent-up demand to get out, get going and to get engaged with each other,” said...
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Consumer Alert: A New Twist on an Old Scam
Grandparent scams have been around for years. Scammers call the victim and claim their grandchild is in grave danger and convince them to send money to help them out of whatever emergency they’re in.
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What's Behind Unemployment Delays — and What's Being Done to Fix Them
One year into the pandemic, states are still struggling to keep up with the sheer number of unemployment claims. Virginia officials say 1.5 million claims have been filed since March 2020 — that’s more than the previous 10 years combined. In Maryland, more than 850,000 claims have been filed. But those are just the number of claims that have been…
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Do Your Kids Have a Secret Social Media Account?
Cathie Marshall from Burke, Virginia, is confident her two teenage boys don’t have secret social media accounts. However, her boys say they know a number of kids who do. They say some kids have two Instagram accounts: one for everyone to see and another for just a few select friends. But this could be asking for trouble. While kids...
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Gift Card Scams: What Are Retailers Doing to Protect You?
Vera Oberg of Germantown, Maryland, lost her life savings to a gift card scam. Oberg is a registered nurse with a degree in healthcare administration and said she can’t believe she fell for this scam. But unfortunately, even the savviest of consumers are no match for these thieves. The scammer claimed he was an FBI agent and told her...
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Some Providers Have Free Money to Help With Your Utility Bills
People are struggling to pay their utility bills. With many families losing all or part of their income during the pandemic, there simply isn’t enough money after paying rent or the mortgage and groceries.
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Where to Find Free Help to Avoid Foreclosure
Owning a home is the American dream. However, many people are barely holding on to their dream. As the economic effects of the pandemic drag on, a growing number of homeowners are struggling to pay their mortgage. The process of saving your home is extremely complicated and not something you should do on your own. The good news: There’s...
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Overwhelmed With Debt? Is It Time to File for Bankruptcy?
The pandemic has put a financial strain on so many families. Some of you may even feel like you’re in financial ruin. But does that mean you should consider filing for bankruptcy? It’s a tough question to answer alone. The number of people filing for bankruptcy has actually dropped during the pandemic because of federal protections in place. But...
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Can a Personal Loan Help You Dig Out of Debt?
Credit card debt — most of us have had it at some point in our lives. According to a recent WalletHub study, American families owe an average of $7,800 on their credit cards and total credit card debt in the U.S. is more than $926 billion. If you are one of those with a lot of credit card debt, a…
