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Dirty Lender Charged Latinos More for Loans

11 May 2009

000004273718xfeature With all of the corruption and dirtiness and in finance-related industries of late, it should perhaps come as no surprise that beyond just “legally” taking advantage of unsavvy consumers by lending them money they could never pay back, at least one of these institutions made it a policy to charge Latinos more for borrowed money. A federal investigation has been opened on California lender Golden Empire Mortgage, Inc., of Bakersfield, which allegedly cannot explain the drastic differences in prices between white customers and Latinos. ConsumerAffairs.com reports:

According to the FTC’s complaint, Golden Empire violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) in pricing mortgage loans. They allegedly gave loan officers and branch managers wide discretion to charge, in addition to the risk-based price, “overages” through higher interest rates and higher up-front charges. The defendants allegedly paid loan officers a percentage of the overages as a commission and failed to monitor whether Hispanic consumers were paying higher overages than non-Hispanic white borrowers.

The complaint alleged that the company’s policy and practice of allowing loan officers to charge discretionary overages resulted in Hispanics being charged higher prices because of their national origin – price disparities that are “substantial, statistically significant, and cannot be explained by factors related to underwriting risk or credit characteristics of the applicants.”

I don’t know why I am surprised by this. It seems that when it comes to the finance sector, the news just gets more and appalling as the days go by. Is it any wonder why we are in the situation we are in now, with so many dirty banks in control of our money and our homes?

Via / ConsumerAffairs

Cell Phone Bills Through the Roof, Consumers Look for Options

10:42 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · economy|Money|Telecomm · Comments Off

17 Mar 2009

sticker-shock In this time of economic difficulty, it seems that more and more people are getting the short end of the stick when it comes to paying what’s fair for the basics — which in this day and age means a cell phone. I’ve had my fair share of through-the-roof cell phone bills myself, but a report in The Christian Science Monitor this week made my jaw drop: according to a consumer advocacy group, cell users in San Diego are paying a whopping $3.00 per minute for their calls. Excessive text messaging can also make your bill go through the roof. Are unlimited cell phone plans the answer? It depends on your usage, according to experts.

This average is driven up by a small slice of consumers who buy large plans but rarely use them. If you cut out these big-spenders, the average falls somewhere between 50 cents and $1 per minute – far more than the “10 cents a minute” claim made in many ads.

That means if you are a big talker/texter an unlimited plan is the way to go. But if you aren’t, you’ll be selling yourself short.

I experienced sticker shock a few years back when I went over my minutes on my cell phone: a $300 bill was my punishment for not watching the clock. That decreased when I went on an unlimited plan but the problem was I wanted to use the Internet, and an unlimited data plan was also really expensive on my carrier. I sucked it up and paid — and continue to pay.

As people start looking for creative ways to cut costs, some are turning to pre-paid cell phones. That sector has reportedly grown some 13% this year, as a result of the economic downturn.

If I weren’t on contract with another company, I’d be interested in this offer, which came to us via Boost Mobile, and that you might find attractive as well: an unlimited plan WITH Internet for only $50. Check it out.

Are you cutting back on your cell phone use as a result of the recession? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Via / Chicago Tribune

Latinos and Blacks Pay More for Health Care at End of Life

12:21 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Health|Money · Comments Off

10 Mar 2009

30340-my-hospital-room-0 Latinos and blacks are less likely to seek out medical care throughout their lives, leading to increased costs at the end of life which far outweigh what is spent by white patients, according to a new report published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Dying Hispanics and black Americans have much higher treatment costs than whites, because they get more costly, intensive treatments as they near death, say researchers who analyzed data from the last six months of life of almost 160,000 Medicare patients.

The average cost for Hispanic patients in those final months of life was $31,702, compared with $26,704 for blacks and $20,166 for whites. Compared to white patients, costs were about 30 percent higher for blacks and almost 60 percent more for Hispanics, the Associated Press reported.

According to U.S. News & World Report, researchers have concluded that the reason for this is the lack of medical care received by black and Latino patients throughout life who, upon becoming terminally ill, receive “more treatment when there’s little chance of improving or extending their lives.”

Via / U.S. News & World Report

Economic Slowdown is Affecting Latinos Hard

11:11 am By Maegan La Mala · Labor|Lifestyle|Money|society · Comments Off

12 Aug 2008

The current economic slump in which the U.S. finds itself in is making life hard on everybody. Rising gas prices and the mortgage fallout are making Americans spend less money, and in turn, business is slow. And it seems that Latinos are the hardest hit group by all of this.

From New York to Miami to Los Angeles, the downturn in the U.S. economy is hitting Hispanics especially hard, with unemployment rising faster in that community than in the overall U.S. population. And the slowdown has had a ripple effect, with a significant drop in payments being sent home to families in Latin America.

“For the last year, Hispanics have been losing jobs at a faster rate than any other group,” said Agustine Martínez, president of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Washington.

The Baltimore Sun reports that unemployment among Latinos is nearly 2 points higher than among the general population, and that salaries for Latino workers are “stuck”. Remesas being sent back to Latin America are said to be down by 70% since 2006.

It’s hard times and everyone’s apretándose el cinturón. Have you had to cut back on expenses just to make ends meet? Where are you spending the most money and what, if anything, do you have to sacrifice? Let us know in the comments.

Via / Baltimore Sun

Latin American women almost on par with men for salary

2:01 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Labor|Latin America|Women · Comments Off

14 May 2007

A new study shows some encouraging data about the state of workplace equality — at least as it relates to remuneration — for women in Latin America. According to the Organización Internacional del Trabajo’s (OIT, International Work Organization) report “Equality in the Workplace”, in the period of 1994-2004 salaries for women in Latin America have gone up considerably, reaching almost the same level of pay for their male counterparts in some cases, and falling just below in others:

In Paraguay, for example, women went from earning 36% less than men in 1994 to 5% less in 2004.

The same thing happened in Brazil in the same decade (from 39% to 13%), and Chile (from 30% to 17%), in Mexico (from 32% to 22%) and in Ecuador (from 24% to 13%).

The best examples of positive change for salary equality in Latin America were Venezuela and Colombia, where women workers earn only 1% less than their male counterparts. The worst? Argentina, where women earn an average of 38% less than men, a statistic that didn’t change from 1994-2004.

Via / El Universal

Dominican Republic welcomes luxury marina

5:48 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities|Dominicans|Events|society · Comments Off

30 Apr 2007

Who would think that the Dominican Republic has a problem with poverty, what with the star-studded festivities around the launch of a billion-dollar yacht marina in the eastern part of the country this past weekend:

Children of US billionaire Donald Trump, the singer Julio Iglesias and fashion designer Oscar de la Renta were among the stars who gathered Saturday in the Dominican Republic’s Cap Cana to inaugurate a luxury marina, organizers said.

Touted as the “most complete and modern marina in the Caribbean,” organizers said in a statement that the facility will, once finished, be able to accommodate 1,000 yachts as well as mega-yachts.

New Latino Scholarship Directory released

2:13 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Education|Money · Comments Off

9 Jan 2007

Live in California and need money for college or know someone who does? The Tomás Rivera Policy Institute has just announced a new directory for Latinos looking for college dollars:

The directory, which was originally released in early november 2006, has been viewed online more than 15,000 times and quickly sold out its initial print run.

Now in its second printing, the directory has been expanded to include more than 20 of the largest national scholarship funders, providing millions of dollars of additional scholarship opportunities for California’s Latino students.

Printed copies will be distributed through the Sallie Mae Fund’s national “paying for college” bus tour, which launches its California tour today. Additional scholarship directories will be distributed by the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute, and by the Hispanic Scholarship Fund at their programs throughout Southern California.

Get more info and download the online version at LatinoCollegeDollars.org.

Thanks to reader Cindylu for the tip!

Latino family hardship rates high

6:54 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Family|Health|Money|society · Comments Off

21 Nov 2006

According to data just released by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Latino and African American families are having a hard time making ends meet, and “experience difficulty affording food, lack needed medical care, and/or live in overcrowded conditions.”

The report finds that 28 percent of African American families with children, and 31 percent of families headed by a Latino citizen, experience at least one of the above three hardships at some point during the year, according to the survey. This is double the rate for non-Latino white families with children (14 percent). This disparity largely reflects the fact that poverty rates are several times higher for African American and Latino families than for white families.

This striking data comes from a Census Bureau survey which, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, is valuable in learning about hardship levels, but is at risk of being terminated by Congress. A senior researcher at the Center says “If this survey is eliminated, we will lose one of our best means of understanding what it’s like to be poor in this country.”

Via / U.S. Newswire

Image via Oxfam UK

Gonna be late? JLo says “pay up!”

7:22 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities|Chismes · Comments Off

1 Nov 2006

If you are planning on having JLo play your birthday party, you better be on time, or she’ll make you pay dearly:

Jennifer Lopez thought she be would charging one and a half million dollars to play at the birthday party of a Russian millionaire. His lateness made the performance even more expensive: 2 million dollars.

People En Español magazine says that the celebration took place one week ago in Moscow for the birthday of millionaire Telman Izmailov.

The original sum was to be 1.5 million dollars, but since the Puerto Rican diva had to wait to perform because of the hosts, she began charging $200,000 for each 10 minutes they were late.

Spain’s 20 Minutos reports that Itar Tass, a Russian news agency, reported that the host, after the performance, gave JLo a gaudy diamond encrusted microphone. Right up her alley! She should have given the poor guy a discount.

Via / 20 Minutos

Is money wiring destroying families?

3:25 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · children|Family|Labor|Latin America|Money · 2 Comments

23 Oct 2006

capt.b2a91d645afabe619a7496605d63593a.jpg Is Western Union-ing some money back to your familia in Mexico destroying the family structure in Latin America? That’s what some experts are saying. While the economies of Latin American countries are bolstered by the remittances made from the U.S. by immigrants to their families (some sources say 20 billion dollars per year in Mexico alone), this practice is also having very negative effects, reports The Miami Herald‘s Andres Oppenheimer:

…at the meeting of mayors in Miami last week, United Nations and Colombian national police consultant Hugo Acero Velasquez said not everything about the remittances is positive: The massive migration of Latin American men is leaving behind fatherless children, who often grow up raised by grandparents who tend to be too permissive.

As a result, millions of children are growing up on the streets. In countries with high youth unemployment rates, they often end up doing criminal jobs for drug-trafficking or other organized-crime gangs, other experts said. According to the latest World Health Organization figures, Latin America is the most violent region in the world after Africa. It has an annual average of 19 violent killings per 100,000 inhabitants, more than twice the world average.

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