CreditSlips

Consumer Scam Review: Lower Your Interest Rate, Lower Your Credit Card Balances, and Work at Home

05/08/12

I have been meaning to write on several consumer scams so here are a few to avoid.

“We Can Lower Your Home Loan Interest Rate” Scams. 

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Affidavits Are Not a Substitute for Evidence of Debt Ownership

05/07/12

The Tennessee Court of Appeals has issued a decision that highlights the problems facing credit card debt collectors in a post-robosigning world (see here and here).

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What say?

05/07/12

Gretchen Morgenson, in Mortgage Unit Troubles Ally Financial explains that:

Although repurchase claimants would be considered general unsecured creditors in a ResCap bankruptcy, the put-back demands would very likely be somewhat senior to those of other unsecured creditors because of their contractual nature.

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Sovereign Restructuring after NML v. Argentina: CACs Don't Make Pari Passu Go Away

05/03/12

A remarkable number of people are buying the creditors' argument that widespread introduction of collective action clauses (CACs) in sovereign bonds makes the debate about the pari passu clause in the Second Circuit irrelevant to the broader regime for sovereign debt rest

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Debit Interchange Post-Durbin: Some Early Numbers

05/01/12

The Fed released some data on debit interchange fees since the Durbin Amendment went into effect (here in spreadsheet and here as a memo with more data). It's all still very early numbers, and things may well change. But so far a few noteworthy things have caught my eye:

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Accretive's Bedside Manner for Debt Collection

04/30/12

The end of last week got a little busy for many of the Credit Slips bloggers and none of us talked about the story last Wednesday by Jessica Silver-Greenberg at the New York Times regarding aggressive debt collection practices by Accretive

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Research Grants from NCBJ

04/30/12

As many readers of this blog will know, the Endowment for Education from the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges has supported many research projects that have contributed to a better understanding of all sorts of issues involving debt and bankruptcy. Judge Dennis Dow, the current chair of the Endowment, contacted me and advised that it has a substantial amount of money available to make grants and is actively soliciting applications. If you are a scholar looking for support for the expenses connected with empirical research, the Endowment may be a great resource for you.

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Pari Passu: So Passe! (Extractive Edition)

04/27/12

Felix Salmon stays with the Argentina pari passu saga, about which I wrote here. The holdout creditors have now filed their briefs (Felix has the links), and are doubling down on the text.

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The Student Loan Tax

04/25/12

As student loan debt passed the $1 trillion mark, President Obama, speaking at Chapel Hill yesterday, called the upcoming interest rate hike on student loans a tax.  He didn’t tell the half of it.  Congress’ dirty secret is that the government makes a huge annual profit on student loans.   According to the scrupulously nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office,

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Learn about Teaching Consumer Law at Houston Law Center May 18-19, 2012

04/25/12

On May 18-19, the Center for Consumer Law at the University of Houston Law Center will hold its sixth bi-annual Teaching Consumer Law Conference. This year’s theme is “Teaching Consumer Law in an Evolving Economy.” I have always enjoyed this conference as it is the only one in the country devoted exclusively to teaching consumer law.  It is designed for those currently teaching consumer law, those interested in teaching, as well as those who just wants to know more about consumer law issues.

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