Life after overdraft fees: ‘advances’ at 120% interest!
With the Federal Reserve ordering severe constraints on bank overdraft fees and Congress considering even tougher rules, U.S. banks face a serious dilemma: How to replace the potential loss of billions in fee revenue? Consumer groups that have been fighting the costly “courtesy overdraft protection” fear that banks have hit on a replacement that might be even worse – a crop of products with names like “Direct Deposit Advance” that are being pushed by lenders such as U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo and Fifth Third Bank. The advances have a stated annual percentage rate of 120 percent but -- if calculated as a traditional loan produc

After data loss, ID theft risk soars
I call them Dear John data letters, because of the bad news they bring and their decidedly warm and fuzzy tone. "Dear Consumer.  We've lost your personal information. It's fallen off a truck/was on a laptop that was lost/was stolen by a hacker. We're sorry and we promise to be better in the future. Good luck." About one in nine consumers receives a Dear John data letter each year, and nearly half of all consumers have received at least one since the year 2000, when California law forced these kinds of disclosures on corporations and government agencies, according to a new study.

Confessions of a credit card telemarketer
What if there were a way to have your credit card debt erased if you lost your job or became disabled? That's the pitch behind debt cancellation, a service offered by many credit card issuers and retailers. Debt cancellation doesn’t come cheap: it costs between $1 and $2 per $100 balance.  A consumer with a $3,000 balance, for example, could pay nearly $60 a month for debt cancellation service. That might not sound like such a great deal, but thousands of consumers sign up anyway. Why? One telemarketer who sells the service told msnbc.com recently

Now's your chance to spy on Google
If you only have time to visit one new Web site this week, make it the new Google dashboard. Last week, the search engine behemoth announced the new feature, which helps Web users keep track of all the ways Google keeps track of them. Visiting this single page gives Googlers centralized access to privacy settings on all the various Google applications -- Gmail, Calendar, Google Docs, YouTube, etc. That's important, because you might not realize that you opened a YouTube account four years ago and divulged your age or zip code -- and that now that information could be available t

'Fakeosphere' latest Web trap for consumers
  This blog-like service is really an ad for a Web sales company.  Click on a weight-loss, work-at-home or acai berry ad and you’re likely to land on what looks like a blog or discussion board. Regular folks appear to be debating the merits of the product – you might even see some contrar