Last week’s New York Times Sunday magazine had a feature story detailing the criminal underworld network behind the bottom feeder debt collection industry.  The article, by Jake Halpern,  titled Paperboys: Inside the Dark Lucrative World of Consumer Debt Collection explains how the industry uses lies and pressure to make huge profits by paying 1% of […]

Gary Welch’s Advance Indiana blog has a great post explaining hidden fees in Indianapolis’s bike sharing program. If you don’t dock the bike every half hour, you can be charged astonishing fees. Read about it at this link.

If you are a parent who (or even a grandparent) who has cosigned private student loans for your family member, you are in for a rude surprise if the borrower dies. The entire loan balance often becomes immediately payable.  This is a rude surprise for an older family member who thinks Junior is going to […]

Welcome to Steve’s (Totally Free!) Consumer Law Blog – the semi-official blog of the Consumer Law Office of Steve Hofer. I’ve blogged before. From 1999 through early 2014, I was the semi-official blogger of AFSCME Local 3357, the union for UAW Legal Services attorneys. If you are a UAW member, retiree, spouse, or surviving spouse, […]