Last Friday, I wrote a little bit about the settlement Equifax reached with the Federal Trade Commission regarding its 2017 data breach. Since that time, there has been a fair amount of discussion online about whether individuals affected should opt for the credit mon...

Good news regarding the Equifax data breach from 2017 (I'm actually surprised I just typed that sentence). Equifax has agreed to a $700 million settlement, and it's actually pretty good. Any individual whose data was compromised has the ability to file a claim and rece...

This past weekend, the Star Tribune ran an article detailing how the Minneapolis City Council is attempting to pass an ordinance regarding the issue of tenant background screening. Essentially, the proposed ordinance mandates that landlords can't factor in certain crim...

Some people are aware that criminal background checks are subject to the Fair Credit Reporting Act ("FCRA"). Typically, adverse information can't appear on a consumer report after seven years. However, criminal convictions are "special": they can be reported indefinite...

Renters in Minnesota are often entitled to a property tax refund if they pay rent while living in a property that was assessed property taxes for the year they lived there. Landlords are required to provide tenants with a Certificate of Rent Paid ("CRP") no later than...

A couple years ago, the Supreme Court took up the issue of whether a bank who had purchased a portfolio of debts was a "debt collector" for purposes of Fair Debt Collection Practices Act ("FDCPA") coverage. SCOTUS held that because the bank in that case was collecting...

Before the last season of Game of Thrones premiered, I got a Facebook ad for bottle openers that were shaped like the broach worn by the King (or Queen's) Hand. So I paid 10 dollars for three of these bottle openers thinking that it would be fun to hand them out to fri...

Maine is the most recent state to pass a student loan bill of rights. It requires licensing of companies who service student loans in the state, unless that company is already a financial institution under state or federal regulatory authority. More important, it requi...

When people think of a credit report, they typically think of a report issued by one of the Big 3 (TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax) showing whether they pay their bills on time. While the Fair Credit Reporting Act ("FCRA") certainly deals with those reports, it's muc...

Great news from an article in the Strib a couple of days ago about the Stephen Frenz tenants. Basically, after years upon years of litigation against one of the most notorious slumlords in Minneapolis, Frenz's tenants finally received some monetary compensation for the...