Consumer Law

Harvest From the Times: Bank Fees and Debt Derails Legal Career

By Jeff Sovern

by Jeff Sovern

Some interesting articles in the New York Times today:  One article, Bank Fees Rise as Lenders Try to Offset Losses, may shed some light on the claim that banks are raising credit card fees in response to passage of the Credit CARD Act.  It seems that banks are raising many fees, including fees that have nothing to do with credit cards, like stop-payment charges and ATM fees.  So maybe the raising of credit card fees has nothing to do with credit cards, specifically, but with attempts to generate money from any available source. 

An article that might pain students now studying for the bar: Aspiring Lawyer Finds Debt is Bigger Hurdle than Bar Exam, about the New York Appellate Division's denial of a candidate's application to be admitted to the bar because of the failure to make substantial payments on student loans.  The candidate's loans jumped from $270,000 to $400,000 in four years, at least in part because of fees added by collection agencies.

Full post as published by CL&P Blog on July 02, 2009 (boomark / email).