Consumer Credit and Debt

Latest Articles

Stay in the black

Graduate without financial ruin
Some of you greenhorns are embarking on your academic careers. And some of you veterans are practically outta here. Remember all that advice about maintaining a good grade-point average? There's another number that might actually be more important: your credit score.
By CLAUDE MORGAN | August 26, 2009

The Loan Groan

Never a borrower or a lender be dept.
Each month, with miserable certitude, the snail-mailboxes of middle-class twenty- and thirtysomethings are stuffed with student-loan bills, from both federal and private lenders. The balance seems to remain stagnant, even as we mail in check after check.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | July 08, 2009

Loan Groan

A new federal program aims to help overburdened student borrowers
Each month, with miserable certitude, the snail-mailboxes of middle-class twenty- and thirtysomethings are stuffed with student-loan bills, from both federal and private lenders. The balance seems to remain stagnant, even as we mail in check after check.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | July 08, 2009

Loan Groan

Public colleges get the shaft

Fewer teachers. Bigger classes. More applicants. Huge tuition hikes. the outlook for Rhode island higher ed is bleak .
When it came time to pick a college, Thomas Ahrens just couldn't pass up the relative affordability of a University of Rhode Island education.
By MEAGHAN WIMS | February 25, 2009

Hope for young homebuyers

The lousy economy — and Obama's stimulus package — has a silver lining
Good news if you're in a sufficiently stable financial situation to think of bailing from greater Portland's rental-housing morass.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | February 23, 2009

The nature of nesting

The homeowning frontlines
The homeowning frontlines
By DEIRDRE FULTON | February 18, 2009

Stuff you really should know about home-buying

(From a guy who learned it the hard way)
(From a guy who learned it the hard way)
By JEFF INGLIS | February 18, 2009

Financial fallout

The devastating wall street crisis has a potential silver lining — if you’re a Massachusetts politician looking for a foothold
The current US financial disaster will roil Massachusetts residents in myriad ways.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | October 08, 2008

Journal job cuts: Practical or self-destructive?

As The ProJo Turns
When John Hill sought his first mortgage as a young reporter, his banker told him, “Oh, you’ll be fine — you work at the Journal .”
By IAN DONNIS | October 02, 2008

Bad craziness

Wall Street’s meltdown is more dangerous than realized. McCain is clueless, but does Obama recognize the root of the problem?
The news from Wall Street this week is dire.
By EDITORIAL | September 17, 2008

Get over it

What every freshman should know about going to college in Boston
Okay, you survived the college-application process; you filled out the miserable FAFSA forms; you sweated out the wait for acceptance letters; and cut your best financial-aid deal.
By CLIF GARBODEN | August 21, 2009

The devil in the details

‘Drawn to Detail’ and ‘Laylah Ali’ at the DeCordova, Esteban Pastorino Díaz at the SMFA, and Student Loan Art Program at MIT
It’s hard to imagine stopping to look at drawings that don’t coalesce till you let them pull you in and spin you around a bit.
By RANDI HOPKINS | August 28, 2008

MEFA madness

No need to panic over student loans. Just pay more.
On July 28, news broke that the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority had fallen on hard times.
By KARA BASKIN | August 13, 2008

The case of Milan Kohout

The right of a performance artist represents the rights of all Americans. Plus, an opportunity with Cuba.
Kohout, a serious man, was engaged in the serious business of political protest.
By EDITORIAL | February 21, 2008

Stay away from me, baby

Politics and other mistakes
Imagine a Maine in which almost everybody is over the age of 40.
By AL DIAMON | November 14, 2007

Out on the street

Finding fault with foreclosures
This was City Life’s second attempt to put a human face on the ordeal of home foreclosures, and it may have paid off.
By NEELY STEINBERG | September 05, 2007

School for scandal

An Emerson College dean becomes the first Boston casualty of the national student-loan fiasco
Lending institutions have been buying the favor of sticky-fingered college administrators for some time now.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | August 27, 2008

Martha’s quick start

In her first four months as attorney general, Martha Coakley has shown political deftness — and a desire to play a major role in state policy
Martha Coakley told opponents of same-sex marriage this past week she would use the full force of her new office to fight their efforts.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | May 16, 2007

Ships at a distance

Bramhall Square
According to my friend T, women, in particular, come to relationships with credit scores low enough to sink 1000 ships.
By CAITLIN SHETTERLY | May 09, 2007

Lender bending

It’s time to rein in the student-loan industry. Plus, trying to make sense of the horror at Virginia Tech.
It should come as little surprise that financial institutions resort to heavy-handed and ethically shady tactics to increase their share of the student-loan business.
By EDITORIAL | April 18, 2007

Opportunity Maine — missing the target?

Numbers
Why are college students leaving Maine after graduation?
By EMILY PARKHURST | April 04, 2007

Student loan scandal

Is your college getting paid to steer you in the wrong direction?
Are students getting screwed, and will anybody stop it?
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | March 28, 2007

Young and dumb

Politics and other mistakes
Consider two mildly mythical Maine citizens.
By AL DIAMON | March 07, 2007

February 3, 2007

Saturday
Waning moon in Virgo; Mercury moves into Pisces. VOC 5:55 to 9:34 am. Earth signs are “in the zone,” but if anyone has the urge to organize, then by all means, give in. Virgo's financial landscape could be greatly improved this month, especially if you can consolidate debts by February 17. Sagittarius could be in the mood to fritter, especially if archers are involved with someone they're “in like” with. That's always dangerous for you folks.
By SYMBOLINE DAI | February 01, 2007

Schoolyard bully

Letters to the Boston editor: December 29, 2006
Can you imagine the uproar if homeowners were suddenly unable to refinance their home with a different lender? Or worse, if they could not refinance at all?
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | December 27, 2006

Manhandled no more

Running with a PAC
A few years ago, if you googled student-loan giant Sallie Mae and the word “lawsuit,” a live-journal blog called Southern Girl Babbling would turn up.
By CATHERINE TUMBER | December 14, 2006

The unfaithful scholar

Advice for transfer students, or how to dump your college
Perhaps you were lured by the promise of original Abraham Lincoln speeches (Boston College) or a castle (Emerson’s Kasteel Well, a 12th century landmark in the Netherlands).
By JESS MCCONNELL | October 23, 2006

MECA slims down

Bodywork
To achieve its $15 million capital campaig goals, the Maine College of Art must first deal with declining enrollment and an administrative exodus.
By SARA DONNELLY | July 12, 2006

Federal anti-drug provision hits RI students hard

Drug wars
Rhode Island has been hit hard by an anti-drug law that bars college students with drug convictions from receiving federal grants and loans, according to US Department of Education statistics.
By STEVEN STYCOS | May 17, 2006