January 25th, 201956154
President Donald Trump said Friday that he will sign a short-term spending bill to temporarily end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
That's good news for federal employees, many of whom have gone more than a month without pay as Democrats and Republicans sparred over funding a wall at the country's southern boarder. The temporary spending bill will last until Feb. 15.
Throughout the shutdown, Georgia credit unions stepped up to help furloughed federal employees. Several offered special loan deals while others worked with affected members to delay payments until they once again began receiving steady pay.
For...
September 25th, 201850149The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is slated to open a regional office in Atlanta late next year, according to a Credit Union Times article.
The agency has regional offices in New York, Chicago and San Francisco that are used mostly by supervision employees. CFPB's Southeast regional team has thus far been located in the bureau's Washington office.
"The city selection process led to Atlanta as the city that best enables the Bureau to fulfill its statutory mission and enhance its collaboration with its regulatory partners, while being as efficient as possible," according to a bureau statement.
For more information, read the...
August 1st, 201856159Foods Co., a unit of supermarket chain Kroger, has already announced that 21 supermarkets and five gas stations in California will ban Visa credit cards as of Aug. 14 — and it looks like that ban could expand to additional stores across the country in the near future.
The decision was made to save on fees Kroger must pay Visa to process credit card purchases. These so-called "swipe fees" are nothing new. According to a Bloomberg article, retailers frequently do battle over the $9- billion a year they pay to credit card companies. Stores are charged each time a customer swipes either a debit card or a credit card, but credit card fees...
July 31st, 201826131Legislation meant to enhance credit scores by allowing consumers to include data about their monthly bills has enjoyed bipartisan support — but some consumer advocates say the legislation may backfire on those it is meant to help, according to an American Banker article.
The bill authored by Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., passed the House earlier this month and is intended to allow consumers to benefit from positive information about their leases, telecommunications and utility payments in their credit reports. The legislation would give consumers who are considered "credit invisible" the opportunity to have a credit history that includes...
July 23rd, 201830149Bad news if you're in the market for a new house.
A recent report shows U.S. home sales posted their third straight monthly decline with an unexpected fall in June, according to a Reuters article. The declines have been driven by a shortae of properties on the market, which have pushed prices to record highs.
Economists have expressed concern that the higher prices and mortgage rates will eventually cause demand to slow.
For more, read the full Reuters article here.
June 28th, 201828151U.S. economic growth could reach a 15-year high by topping 5 percent growth in the period from April to June, according to a MarketWatch article.
A handful of Wall Street firms recently increased their estimates for the second quarter — and MarketWatch predicts more will soon follow suit. Notably, Macroeconomic Advisers raised its GDP forecast to 5.3 percent from 4.5 percent.
"The firm's forecast is one of the most detailed on Wall Street," according to the MarketWatch article.
Since the recession ended, the best quarter of economic growth was in the fall of 2014, when GDP rose by 5.2 percent. Before that, the GDP hadn't topped...
June 21st, 201823138A recent study from ATTOM Data Solutions, curator of the nation's main property database, shows U.S. home prices in the first quarter were the least affordable they've been since 2008.
According to an ATTOM press release, the company calculates its affordability index based on the percentage of income needed to buy a median-priced home relative to historic averages. An index about 100 shows median home prices are more affordable than the historic average while an number below 100 means median home prices are less affordable than the historic average.
In the second quarter of 2018, ATTOM calculated the nation's home affordability index...
June 18th, 201826143President Donald Trump's administration reportedly intends to nominate a relatively unknown budget official to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Kathy Kraninger is an associate director at the Office of Management and Budget under director and current interim leader of the CFPB, Mick Mulvaney. While Kraninger's nomination has some level of support, it also drew criticism from both sides of the aisle.
According to a WallStreet Journal article, some conservatives have seemed concerned about Krininger's chances of getting the ncessary senate approval to lead the 1,700 agency employees.
(She is a) mid-level budget staffer...
June 14th, 201828163We've officially reached that other tax day.
Today is the last day to file your 2017 taxes without hitting the failure-to-file fee, according to a LifeHacker article.
The failure-to-file fee is different than the penalty for paying late taxes. When you pay taxes you owe late, you're paying 0.5 percent of the amount owed each month you haven't paid plus interest. The failure-to-file fee piles five percent for each month or part of a month a tax return is late on top of those other fees.
To avoid paying those fees, consumers who haven't yet filed their 2017 tax returns need to either file or request an extension today, June...
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