The New Zealand economy feels a lot like a ‘Zombie Nation’ that wants to keep extending the loans and pretending that eventually everything will eventually go back to normal. Parts of our financial system and many property owners have been in a zombie-like state for much of the last two years, [ Read More → ]

Both those who took out loans before 1998 and those whose loans date from after that period will now pay interest on their balances, after a period where those with older loans were effectively paid to keep hold of them, and those with newer loans paid zero interest. The Student Loans Company confirmed that [ Read More → ]

Anna and Charlie Reynolds of St. George, Utah, were worried about losing their home to foreclosure last year. Then they got a lucky break—from an unlikely savior. Some investment funds are emerging as the best hope for millions of U.S. households, like the Reynolds, above, who were behind on [ Read More → ]

A California woman deep in credit card debt turned to a debt-settlement company that immediately began deducting money from her bank account for its promised services. After three months, the woman started getting calls from her creditors and learned they had never heard from the company. She asked for her money [ Read More → ]

Viaduct Capital’s receivers say security sharing deeds (SSDs) on some of the company’s loans, which have bumped them down the repayment pecking order, and the demise of Mutual Finance which was the recipient of some of these SSDs, are likely to reduce the amount of money they can recover. The Auckland-based [ Read More → ]

In July 2006, 25-year-old Christopher Bryski died. His private student loans didn’t. Mr. Bryski’s family in Marlton, N.J., continues to make monthly payments on his loans—the result of a potentially costly loophole in the rules governing student lending. As the college season nears, throngs of parents and students still are applying [ Read More → ]

WASHINGTON - Consumer borrowing fell in June for a fifth straight month as households keep cutting back on credit card use. Borrowing dropped at an annual rate of $1.3 billion in June, the Federal Reserve reported Friday. That marked the 16th drop in overall credit in the past 17 months. Americans backed [ Read More → ]

NEW YORK - Lots of homeowners are frustrated these days that they can’t seem to get a mortgage refinance even though interest rates are at historic lows. It turns out they’re not alone. Plenty of people on Wall Street would also love to see a boom in refinancing activity, saying it [ Read More → ]

KANSAS CITY, Mo.—The latest form of identity theft doesn’t depend on stealing your Social Security number. Now thieves are targeting your kid’s number long before the little one even has a bank account. Hundreds of online businesses are using computers to find dormant Social Security numbers — usually those assigned to [ Read More → ]

Millions of Brits have hit financial difficulties during the recession and struggled to make ends meet. It’s been a tough few years that will have left many people with a glitch or two on repayment records. Paying off some lenders one month and others the next could have left marks on credit [ Read More → ]