Think of your mailbox before the Great Recession. You got bills, grocery store circulars, invitations and magazines, but crowding them all out, we bet, were credit card offers.

Credit card issuers mailed five to seven billion offers a year from 2004 to 2007, according to Mintel Comperemedia, which tracks such things.
But when the economy [...]

Here’s a trick Citibank pulled before the Credit Card Accountability and Responsibility Act took effect last month in an effort to circumvent the new regulations.

Two of the act’s most important provisions require credit cards to:

Provide 45 days notice before raising rates, and the new higher rate can’t be imposed on existing balances, just new purchases.
Wait [...]

Talk about cynical.
A shadowy special interest group is trying to turn consumer anger at big banks into anger against new federal regulations intended to protect us from another financial crisis.
The ad claims that the “Big Bank Bailout Bill” amounts to a “new $4 trillion bailout for banks.”
Of course the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection [...]

“Let’s see if we can soothe some of the anxiety out there about converting traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs this year.
It’s a good move for younger savers who are a long way from retirement and might well expect to be making more in retirement than they are in their late ’20s or early 30s.
It’s not [...]

Let’s say you get a notice that the interest rate on your Chase credit card is going up.

You send Chase a letter rejecting the increase and close the account so that you can repay your balance at the current, lower interest rate.
You’re done dealing with Chase, right?
Maybe not.
According a recent lawsuit, Chase has continued to [...]

Home prices didn’t fall as quickly as expected in the final three months of 2009, according to the National Association of Realtors latest report.

In fact, home prices showed so much improvement that we have to wonder if they’ll really fall another 5% to 10% this year as some experts have projected.
The national median price of [...]

That’s the deal through Sunday at Cici’s Pizza.
The 24-foot-long pizza, salad and pasta buffet that usually costs about $6 (already a good buy in Bankaholic’s opinion) has been cut to $3.99 to celebrate the chain’s 25th anniversary.
While Cici’s can’t match the high-end fixings at places like California Pizza Kitchen, it offers a big lineup of [...]

You know how much I love free food.
This one doesn’t light me up quite as much as free tacos on Halloween, but it’s more filling — and fulfilling.
Between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. on Tuesday (that’s Feb. 23 just to make sure we’re clear) IHOP will be offering a free short stack of buttermilk pancakes [...]

With the recession over and CD rates at record lows, this seems like the right time to divert more savings into a 401(k) plan.

If you haven’t been laid off by now, you probably won’t be. So you can risk tying-up more money in long-term savings.
And you’ll probably save more on your taxes than you can [...]