The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "credit card debt" ...
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Debt Settlement/Abusive Debt Collection
Debt settlement company complaints are on the rise. The story shows how one family in Minnesota turned to a debt settlement company for help and ended up with increased debt as a result.
Tags: debt settlement; scam; credit card debt; debt; consumer; credit solution disputes
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The Credit Trap
This series ties lax credit card lending and punishing fee practices to the housing boom, to consumers' mounting financial distress, and to the economic downturn. The reports revealed that during the housing boom, banks sharply raised card limits in part because of a surge in home equity, much of it now vanished. Then banks guided borrowers to tap into rising home equity to pay off card balances, putting their homes at risk.
Tags: credit card; credit card debt; home equity; housing market; economy; rate hikes; mortgages; banking industry; card lenders
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The Poverty Business
Major national companies are found to be trapping vulnerable consumers into expensive loans by use of credit cards, computers and used cars. People are being pushed to pay off debts for which they've been cleared by bankruptcy courts and they are becoming more poor because of it.
Tags: microfinance; interest; Roxanne Tsosie; credit card; loans; bankruptcy; bankruptcy court; debt; poverty
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Green With Envy: Why Keeping UP With The Joneses is Keeping Us in Debt
Author Shira Boss investigates the effect of money on our society and on the way we live. A major point is that some who put on a show of being well-to-do are actually struggling behind the scenes. She examines situations including a family living in a gated community yet racking up credit-card debt, a politician who has to sleep on a cot, and a 50-something baby boomer who's peers are set, but who has kids in college and no retirement fund. Boss also uses statistics from economics, psychology, sociology and cultural anthropology to show that sometimes keeping up appearances can be reckless financially.
Tags: Wealth; debt; bankruptcy; earnings; keeping up with the Joneses; economics; psychology; sociology; cultural anthropology
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Philadelphia City Councilman Indicted in federal bribery investigation
Philadelphia councilman Rick Mariano was accused of having a company in his district pay $23,455 of his credit card debt in 2002, with two of the three checks laundered by other companies in his district. He is also accused of having another company pay $5,400 of his gym dues. Federal prosecutors said Mariano, in turn, provided help with city services and agencies to businessmen who paid his bills.
Tags: money laundering; bribery; political bribes; Rick Mariano; state public record law; corruption
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Dealing with Debt
This story examines the debtor requirements of the 2005 bankruptcy reform law and says that the credit industry needs reform and oversight.
Tags: bankruptcy; bankruptcy reform; lending; credit; credit cards
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The Price of Prosperity
Lavigne found that Collin County, a suburb of Dallas, had one of the highest median income rates in the nation, and also one of the lowest median net worth rates among wealthy counties. Upon looking deeper, she found that bankruptcies had doubled in a five-year period, and there had been 3,300 foreclosures on homes, most of them in high income neighborhoods. She interviewed dozens of families, clergy, business people, finance experts and other residents of Collin county for her series, as well as accessing federal, state and local data. She found that many people were living beyond their means to keep up with their neighbors.
Tags: Personal finance; median income; down-sizing; lay-offs; IT jobs; spending habits; credit card debt
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The Secret History of the Credit Card
Frontline/New York Times Television looks into how the credit card industry manages to increase their profits while average Americans increase their debts. The investigation reveals "tricks of the trade" which increase profits and hit consumers with late fees and penalties. The biggest "trick" of them all is universal default where, after monitoring the customer's financial activity, the companies raise that person's interest rate, based on whether or not they think the customer has become risky.
Tags: credit card industry; universal default; MBNA; OCC; interest rates
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Showing Its Age: Fed's Huge Empire Set Up Years Ago, Is Costly and Inefficient
The Journal reports that the federal Reserve Bank has too many banks, some in wrong places, and is facing losses in check-clearing. The story finds that "rapid changes in technology, consolidation in banking and rising competition in some of their basic services threaten to make Fed banks costly relics. Except for the New York Fed, the system's link to world markets, many Fed functions could be centralized at far less cost and some fed banks could be closed, federal auditors say."
Tags: banking; competition; credit cards; bad debts; write-offs; loans; business; financial services
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Dun Deals: As Many People Sink Into Debt, One Group Of Workers Prospers
The Journal reports on the business of collecting bad debts. The story profiles Joel Krisolofsky, an employee at Abacus Financial Management Services LP, a collection agency. "As more Americans fail to repay debt, collecting has become lucrative work."
Tags: credit cards; finances; debtors; student loans; bankruptcy