Amid the pandemic, banks have “frozen” at least $150 billion of loans – equating to about 5 percent of their consumer portfolios. The question becomes: What happens when the freeze thaws and lenders try to get paid? Unemployment, of course, has been skyrocketing, and tens of...
As lenders provide relief for homeowners from the financial challenges of COVID-19, the number of mortgages on temporary postponement increased to 8.16 percent as of May 10, up from 7.91 percent in the prior week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Forbearance and Call...
The College of William and Mary, hoping to court new applicants even as a financial crisis grips the world, has announced a rollback of the 3 percent tuition increase it previously put in place due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to CNBC. It isn’t alone...
Household debt has risen substantially in 2020 thus far, shooting up to $14.3 trillion, a number bypassing the height of the Great Recession by $1.6 trillion, according to a CNBC report that cited the New York Federal Reserve. However, credit card balances have dropped compared...
To fight the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. government said it is planning to borrow $2.99 trillion in the second quarter this year, a record number, according to The Wall Street Journal. That amount is over five times as much as the country borrowed at the...
Banks are bracing for fallout as more people struggle to make credit card payments due to lost paychecks amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Credit card companies — Capital One, Discover, Synchrony — have been allowing people to...
The phenomenon of zombie debt is not new to the U.S. economy — nor are consumer complaints about collection agencies that use aggressive tactics in the service of collecting such debt. For those unfamiliar with the term, zombie debt is debt a consumer legitimately owed,...
Stories about Americans’ increasing debt load have become something of a recurring theme in financial reporting. About two weeks ago, U.S. credit card debt hit an all-time high of $930 billion, higher than the previous peak hit just ahead of the financial crisis of 2008. That data comes from...
Debt from credit cards hit a record high in 2019, driven by young borrowers and aggressive spending, according to The Wall Street Journal. Despite a healthy economy and robust job market, the number of people who fell behind on payments increased. The total balance on credit...
