• Credit Card Interest Rates At Record High (Consumer Affairs)

The average credit card interest rate has risen to 15.74%, an all-time high, according to CreditCards.com.

That record covers the span that the card comparison website has been conducting its weekly analysis. In the past, long before the internet, credit card rates have been a lot higher. But in recent memory, they haven’t. CreditCards.com calculates its average by looking at the rates on the 100 most popular credit cards in the U.S., in all types of categories. For example, the average rate on credit cards for consumers with bad credit is much higher – 23.20%. But “low interest” credit cards, usually offered to consumers with good or excellent credit, have an average interest rate of 12.50%.

• Ex-Theater Agent Admits to Tricking Friends Into Investing in Fake Play (NY Times)

  As he entered his plea, Mr. Scahill admitted to Justice Charles Solomon that he had “concocted a scheme” to trick investors into putting money into a phantom production. He said he had pretended to have obtained the rights to the life story of the opera singer Kathleen Battle and intended to produce a one-woman show starring Ms. Nyong’o. He told the investors — most of them close friends — that the play would chronicle the day in 1994 when Ms. Battle was fired by the Metropolitan Opera.

• Wall Street To Millenials: Don’t Fear the Stock Market (USA Today):

• What Are Most Common Complaints of Student Loan Borrowers (National Law Review)?

The most common issues identified by consumers in student loan complaints were “problems dealing with their lenders or servicers” (64%) and “being able to repay their loans” (33%). Complaints about non-federal student loans comprised 64% of the complaints, while federal student loan complaints made up the remaining 36% of complaints.  The CFPB also identified the following issues from student loan complaints: Poor information from and sloppy practices by servicers; difficulty enrolling and staying in an income-driven repayment plan; and confusion about consumers’ progress toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness programs.

• Your Credit Score Is About To Become More Forgiving (Washington Post):

“The VantageScore, a credit scoring model developed by the three major credit reporting bureaus TransUnion, Equifax and Experian, will soon put more weight on the trends in a person’s credit report. That includes whether they have been paying off their credit cards or have been racking up more debt, says Jeff Richardson, a spokesman for VantageScore Solutions, the company that offers the score.

The new data is meant to provide more context to a consumer’s debt load and help lenders get a more holistic view of a person’s credit behavior and risk level, Richardson says.”

• How Many Credit Cards Should You Have (Motley Fool)?

So, go ahead and sign up for as many or as few credit cards as you want. Just make sure you can manage all the accounts you have — whether it’s one or 10 — and don’t use credit cards as a crutch to support unsustainable spending. There’s really only one person that can answer “how many credit cards should you have?” That’s you.

• How Will You Die? (Flowing Data) – A little morbid I know but this is what happens after being awake for 20 hours:) Of course, the major flaw in the simulation is that medical breakthroughs will probably shift the causes of death:

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

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