Advertiser Disclosure
The credit card, banking, and other financial offers that appear on this site are from companies that compensate us – for example, when you click a link, are approved for a product, or open an account. This compensation may influence how and where offers appear on the site, including the order in which they appear on category pages. It does not influence our evaluations, ratings, or opinions, which are ours alone. We do not include every bank, credit card company, or offer available in the marketplace.
Liability and lawsuits, asset protection, contracts, lawyers, settlements, disputes, and refunds. Know your rights and use them when money is on the line.
Federal law gives you free credit reports, free investigations of errors, free credit freezes, and a way to stop preapproved credit offers. Don’t save them for the day you apply. Once a year, pull your reports from all three credit bureaus, dispute anything wrong, freeze your credit, and opt out of those offers.
Before you file for bankruptcy, hire a lawyer who handles cases like yours in your local court all the time, quotes a flat fee in writing, and comes with you to your meeting with the bankruptcy trustee. Interview two or three first, and ask each the same questions so you can compare their answers.
A collector calling about a debt you haven’t paid in years may have run out of time to sue you. That deadline is the statute of limitations, and in some states even a small payment or promise to pay restarts it. Pay nothing until you’ve checked your last payment date against your state’s deadline.
A credit card chargeback reverses a disputed charge, but the temporary credit your card issuer usually posts isn’t final. The merchant can answer with its own evidence, and the rules of your card’s network, such as Visa or Mastercard, decide who wins. Before you file, gather the receipt, the merchant’s policy, your messages, and photos of the problem.
If your credit card statement shows a negative balance, that’s your own money, and it earns nothing while the card issuer holds it. Ask the issuer to send it to your bank account or mail you a check. Put the request in writing, and federal rules give the issuer seven business days to pay.
Any eye exam that measures your glasses prescription must end with a free copy in your hand, whether or not you ask. Take it, and ask for your pupillary distance, the space between your pupils, before you leave. Then price the same frames and lenses online before you buy at the office.
If you’re bringing debt, a home, a business, retirement savings, or kids from a past relationship into a marriage, start the prenup conversation months before the wedding. Writing one begins with each of you disclosing everything you own and owe. Even if you never sign, you’ll both know exactly what the other brings to the marriage.
When a debt collector contacts you, don’t pay or agree that the debt is yours. Read the validation notice, then dispute the debt in writing before the end date it lists. A dispute in that window makes the collector stop collecting until it sends you verification.
When an airline cancels or significantly changes your flight within, to, or from the US, it owes you a cash refund of your fare and any extras you paid for. Say no to the voucher and the rebooking unless you want them, because accepting either can cost you that refund.
When you hire movers for an out-of-state move, get a binding estimate in writing before anything goes on the truck. A binding estimate fixes the price for the move it describes. A non-binding one is only the mover’s best guess, and the final bill can run higher.
End of content
End of content
