Online petitions which combine the simplicity of Internet publishing with the distribution power of social media are becoming a popular (and successful) way to to demand justice from unscrupulous corporations.

Molly Katchpole, a recent college graduate and Bank of America customer, started an online petition at Change.org that collected more than 300,000 signatures to fight Bank of America’s plan to charge a $5 debit card fee. The bank rescinded the plan after one month.

In a repeat feat, Katchpole pooled together more than 166,000 signatures to end a $2 convenience fee that Verizon, one of the nation’s biggest providers of telecommunication and broadband services, charged for paying bills online.

And most recently, Stef Gray, another recent grad, started a Change.org petition to protest a $50 forbearance fee that was pocketed by Sallie Mae, the largest servicer of student loans in the United States. Sal

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Many sellers want to wait until the spring before putting their home on the market. This might be for any of several reasons:

• 1. They don’t want to be inconvenienced during the holiday season.
• 2. They believe that they will see more potential buyers and as a result will get a higher price.
• 3. In the northern part of the country, they might not want people walking through the snow and then into their house.
• 4. All of the above

In a normal real estate market, this may make sense. However, this market has been anything but normal. This spring will also see some abnormalities. The biggest difference will be the direction prices will take. 

In years past, the spring market would favor the seller because increased demand would outpace any increase in supply: the number of houses coming onto the market would not be as great as the number of buyers newly entering the market. In

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Dear To Her Credit, My boyfriend and I are talking about marriage. I think he will propose soon. I filed for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy two years ago, but now I have no new or old debt and am on the right track.

My boyfriend has a great career and makes about $80,000 a year. We live together, and he is responsible with his bills. He has old debt from medical bills and a few other debtors that are in collections from about five to 10 years ago (he might owe about $70,000 total).

How will this affect my credit if we get married? I want to marry him no matter what, and he is considering filing bankruptcy. Currently, he has an auto loan and, for some reason, his credit score is not bad. What will happen if he files bankruptcy in a few years after we get married? If we are married, can he file bankruptcy in his name only? Also, since I have already filed bankruptcy two years ago, does that affect him? Any information will be helpful. Thank you!

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If you have been marked by a fair credit rating, then you are somewhere in the middle. This is not essentially a bad score, but it is certainly not a very good either. It would basically mean that you missed several payments, when you did not have funds or your debt to income ratio is quite low. Some credit card offers for people with fair credit are balance transfer cards, cash back cards and rewards cards. Read more…

This week, Marc Andreessen announced that Ning, the social networking platform company he co-founded in 2004 and that went on to raise nearly $120 million, had “agreed to merge” with the lifestyle blog network Glam Media. Yet few believe it will be a marriage of equals.

“Merger” was almost uniformly put in wink-wink quotations in press accounts of the deal. Outside investors didn’t buy it, either. “My guess is that Glam thinks it is gaining some credibility by adding Andreessen to its board, and in return Glam is putting Ning out of its misery,” said one VC who asked not to be named.

Andreessen seemed further undermined – if unintentionally so — by Ning’s CEO Jason Rosenthal, who published his own announcement at Ning’s site, writing that Ning had “signed an agreement to be acquired” by Glam.

If Andreessen gussied up the deal a bit, can anyone really hold it against him? Andreessen clearly wanted to be respectful of Rosenthal and Ning’s founding team. He had investors to conside

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Updated with current price quotes for 2012!

Now, I always love every gift card that I get but what if youre trying to simplify your life and wanted to convert your Overpriced.com gift card to good ole fungible cash?

Well, the old-fashioned way was to sell them on eBay. A couple years ago, I tested out eBay and found after eBay auction costs and Paypal transaction fees ranged from 81% for Gap gift cards to 90% for Amazon gift certificates. However, the eBay route adds in hassle and potential for fraud. What if some buyer from across the country says your card arrived empty?

A bunch of new websites have popped up that (1) provide upfront quotes for your gift cards, (2) provide a prepaid mailer to send in your cards, and (3) send you a check. The most popular ones appear to be , , , and .

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