Darren Waggoner

Local government agencies may no longer lower a driver's credit score because of unpaid traffic tickets or parking citations, according to a policy the three major credit bureaus agreed to in a legal settlement with 31 state attorneys general.

U.S. Bancorp will pay $10 million while Banco Santander settled for $3.4 million following missteps in how they handled earlier orders from regulators to fix faulty foreclosure practices, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Participants in an alleged credit card laundering scheme have agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they illegally helped provide access to payment networks, thereby enabling scammers to place bogus charges on consumers’ credit cards.

Student Financial Aid Services Inc. is accused in a complaint filed Thursday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau of charging families for help in filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

More than half of the value of B2B receivables 90 days or more overdue were written off as uncollectable by businesses in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Brazil, according to the latest Atradius survey of B2B suppliers in those countries.

Fair Isaac Co. revealed Thursday that its revamped credit score model will not weigh medical debt as heavily as previous versions, a key change given that medical debt accounts for nearly half of all unpaid collections on consumers' credit reports.

While rent represents the biggest expense each month for many consumers, the payments rarely are reported to credit bureaus, meaning they don't help people improve their credit scores.

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood's office sued credit reporting giant Experian Information Solutions, alleging errors in the company's data and regular violations of consumer protection laws.

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers appear increasingly concerned about issues related to student lending, including the possibility that the record level of student loan debt could end up damaging the economy.

Two of the largest consumer debt buyers on Thursday agreed to halt lawsuits against borrowers and pay fines to settle allegations they violated New York law in pursuing debtors.

INDIANAPOLIS — Eli Lilly FCU will take a $26 million loss on default-prone loans to students enrolled at ITT Technical Institute, owned by ITT Educational Services, a for-profit college chain sued in February by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for alleged predatory lending practices.

Midland, Texas, is the latest in a growing number of cities proposing an ordinance that affects payday lenders, or credit access businesses.

JPMorgan Chase illegally won thousands of default judgments in credit card collection lawsuits by robosigning affidavits, according to a class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

In 30 states and the District of Columbia, attorneys general are urging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to adopt new debt collection rules that will "better protect consumers and military service members."

A New Jersey appeals court ruled that debt buyers do not have to provide notice to consumers when debts are purchased and assigned but must prove they own the debt and the amount before they can collect. Further, electronic business records are sufficient for proof.

Unicredit America Inc., the Erie, Pa.-based collection agency that used a fake courtroom to coerce debtors to pay, could have to pay more than $1.2 million in penalties pending a ruling by Senior Erie County Judge John A. Bozza.

The operators of a Philadelphia-based telemarketing scheme will pay more than $7.5 million to settle FTC charges that they peddled bogus credit cards and illegally debited consumers’ bank accounts.

CFS II, a Tulsa, Okla.-based debt collection agency, is scouting offices in North Carolina to potentially open a call center with as many as 2,000 jobs, according to company officials.

A federal court has halted an online operation that allegedly debited consumers’ bank accounts without their consent when consumers visited the defendants’ Web sites seeking payday loans.

Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson's office on Thursday sued debt collection giant Encore Capital Group Inc. for allegedly using fraudulent "robo-signed" affidavits in lawsuits against consumers.