For nearly every business on the planet, the 2% fee charged on credit card payments is just another cost of doing business.

Not so for colleges, which are implementing policies that pass that fee on to their students and the parents who pay tuition. The USA Today reports that "Starting Wednesday, students at the University of Southern Maine who pay tuition using plastic will face a 2.75% processing fee. Other schools that have adopted, or are adopting, similar policies include George Mason University, Northwestern University, Wichita State and the University of Virginia."

Colleges that don't have these fees are seeing some savvy parents dropping 5-digit college expenses onto credit cards and then paying them off immediately -- stumbling into a airline miles bonanza in the process. On the other hand, rising college costs have some students putting their college tuition bills on their credit cards. In 2008, students charged an average of $2,200 in educational expenses to credit cards, up 134% from four years earlier, according to Sallie Mae.

Now those students will be in for a Supersized college ripoff: Lacking the cash to cover their expenses, they'll put them onto their credit cards -- and pay $200 in extra fees for the privilege.

But the college don't really care about that -- They just want their money.

If you want to see a consumer financial protection agency, now is the time to let your Congressman know how important that protection will be for you. I've seen many comments on WalletPop about how abusive credit card and mortgage practices have hurt people's financial position. Most of those abuses occurred because federal agencies were asleep at the switch.

While consumer protection laws have long been in place, no one agency has the responsibility to be certain these laws are being enforced. Now President Obama wants a new consumer protection agency that would regulate home loans, credit card fees, payday loans and other forms of consumer finance, but the banks are already organizing their lobbying troops to kill the plan. Banks have taken billions of dollars to save themselves, let's make sure they don't kill the one small package geared to consumer protection.

When President Obama signed the credit card bill in May, there was one stipulation included for the benefit of the credit card companies: The changes go into effect in the middle of 2010.

That means, as Suze Orman has pointed out, that the credit card companies have an entire year to have their way with you. And nobody will hear you scream.

And look, here they are now, approaching consumers with a long to-do list of wrong that would make former Pastor Ted Haggard blush.

The USA Today reports that "Most issuers have raised rates or fees for certain borrowers. In the latest round, Bank of America and Chase have increased, or are increasing, their maximum balance-transfer fees, from 3% to 4% and 5%, respectively. Chase is also expanding the definition of who could get hit with a penalty interest rate. Meanwhile, InfiBank is establishing a higher minimum APR -- the greater of 15.99% or 11.99% plus the prime rate -- on many cards. And Capital One and Citigroup continue to raise card rates for certain borrowers."

So fasten your seatbelts, folks. It's gonna be a bumpy ride for a while more yet.

But I'm with Suze on this one. You can't totally blame the credit card companies. They're just doing their job, which happens to be screwing you. Blame your elected officials -- and yourselves -- however, for letting it happen.

Family breakdowns including divorce, unwed mothers, and absentee fathers are costing millions to society according to a new study.

A senior family division judge for England and Wales, Justice Paul Coleridge, accused mothers and fathers who fail to commit to each other of engaging in a game of "pass the partner" that has left millions of children "scarred for life."

Seem dramatic? Maybe so, but it is true. According to the US Census Bureau, 29.1% of women who had a birth in 2004 were not married and that half of such unmarried mothers were living below the poverty level. This compared with 12% of married women at the poverty level. Too often, the failure to commit leaves children without a father, without stability, and without money.

And who picks up the tab? You and me. The societal cost of unwed mothers and divorced families is estimated to cost taxpayers at least $112 billion per year. A 1% reduction in family fragmentation would save taxpayers an estimated $1.1 billion per year.

When one thinks about debt collectors, names like "leech," "bloodsucker," and "pit bull" immediately dance from the tongue; for those lucky few of us who have occasionally received wake-up calls from the bill man, the terms get even more emotionally fraught and foully descriptive. While cannibalism is obviously a somewhat extreme response, regular social calls from creditors can help one see the wisdom of Hannibal Lector, who proudly bragged of eating a census-taker's liver with "fava beans and a nice chianti."

In the current economic situation, affection would likely be the last response that a bill collector could expect from a client. However, this is exactly what a collector in Victorville, California got on Wednesday when she knocked on a customer's door. The collector, a car saleswoman, came by to pick up a payment when she noticed that her customer had missed the pay date.

If you thought prices at the canceled auction in April for Michael Jackson's belongings were high -- $20,000 for one of the front gates to Jackson's Neverland Ranch -- the pop icon's death on Thursday will likely push the prices off the charts.

A Michael Jackson auction is a garage sale of the century, if it ever happens.

The auction set for April 22-25 in Beverly Hills was canceled a week earlier after Jackson's lawyers and the auction house agreed to settle and have the items returned to Jackson.

He had initially agreed to allow the sale of items taken from his home -- valued at $10 million -- but in March he filed a lawsuit seeking the return of some of the 2,000 personal items. A judge ruled the auction could continue as set, but both sides later reached an agreement.

A joint statement by both a Jackson spokesman and Julien's Auction House suggested that the items would be put in a museum for the public to view, and that putting them into the hands of private collectors wouldn't serve Jackson's fans.

A group of Florida men who made false promises that they could fix consumers' credit agreed to a $21 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission that was reduced to $5,000 apiece because they said they couldn't afford the larger sum, the FTC announced.

The FTC said it would reimpose the higher number, which spokesman said accounts for the gross revenue of the business, if the three defendants fail to pay the $5,000 or they lied about their financial conditions.

Ace Group, Inc., also known as American Credit Experts, Inc., The Ace Group, Inc., The Ace Group, and ACE; and Legal Credit Repair Center, Inc. were the subject of a federal lawsuit filed late last year by the FTC. Also cited were principals Michael Singer, Gerald Roth and Melvin Kessler.

The FTC said they told consumers they could get negative entries on their credit reports removed and charged $60 upfront and then another $60 a month thereafter. Dispute letters sent by the company didn't achieve the promised result, the FTC said.

The men agreed to stop collecting money from people who had signed up for their services and to protect their customers' identities as they dispose of the personal and financial information that had been collected. Two separate judgments were filed in the case: One that covered Singer and Roth and the other on Kessler, who filed for protection under federal bankruptcy laws.

The FTC warns consumers that using such services isn't the solution to credit problems. The commission offers advice on its web site on what consumers with credit problems can do to help their situations. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has some additional information on avoid debt elimination scams.

Just when you thought credit card companies couldn't go any lower with deceptive marketing tactics, Discover recently sent out a whopper of a mailer to cardholders. The new mailing focused on the many benefits that cardmembers receive from Discover, including the ability to get Cash Over at select retailers, including Wal-Mart at your current card rate without any extra fees.

Discover claims that Cash Over is a great way to avoid ATM transaction fees and combine two trips without any surprises. But for most credit card users, this is almost as bad as using your credit card for a cash advance.

Some people are being turned down for jobs because they have bad credit. Nearly half of all employers check credit reports to screen folks during the application screening process, according to the Herald of Monterey County.

That means that many unemployed folks who are struggling because of the recession may be viewed negatively by job recruiters.

"Companies ... want an insight into how an individual conducts their own life, because that's typically how they're going to conduct business inside your business," Mary M. Massad of personnel management company Administaff told the Herald.

But although checking credit reports gives a snapshot of a person's finances, it doesn't always give the whole story. For instance, how much are recruiters taking into account the fact that many people were paying their bills on time until they got laid off?

Ahh, Mayor Sam Adams. We Portlanders so want to love you, with your yellow bike helmet and your openly gay self-ness. You reflect all that is Portland, bike-geeky and weird, weird, weird.

Lately, however, you reflect us a little too well. Like one of those magnifying mirrors that lets you see your pores and your pimples and your worry lines in horrifying scale. First there was the teen sex scandal, in which you probably didn't have sex with a teenager (he was 18 before y'all hooked up), but you definitely lied, and made us wince at the headlines the morning of Obama's inauguration. That was kind of icky.

Even if your credit card company refused to cut you a deal on your credit card balances just a few months ago, you might want to try again. The New York Times reported today that some credit card companies have changed the rules and are giving front-line customer service reps the right to cut your principal balance, as well as interest and penalties, if your balance is past due.

Credit-card companies are realizing it's better to get something than nothing. (And customers seem perfectly happy with the arrangement, if the photo of one smirking consumer in the story is any indication.) Now that people don't have equity in their homes, there really is no option for unsecured debt.

In the past, credit-card companies could take you to court, get a judgment, and then try to collect by putting a lien on your home or garnishing your wages. But with unemployment high above 9%, even wage garnishment is often not an option for collecting from deadbeats.

Credit-card companies must write down a balance to zero once a person has been delinquent for six months. That doesn't mean they won't stop trying to collect the debt, but it does mean they have to show the loss on their books. With 6.5% of credit card debt at least 30 days past due in the first quarter -- the highest percentage since the Federal Reserve starting tracking it in 1991 -- credit-card companies need to do something, however desperate, to stop the bleeding.

This is a round-up of the most popular finance links from Tip'd, the social news site for finance, in the past week. This week's stories include tips on reducing overhead by using Google Apps for business, another take on the old adage "spend less than you make'" (which we honestly cannot hear enough), and the President's credit card statement.

Barack Obama's Credit Card Statement (37 Tips)
A tongue-in-cheek look at the commander-in-chief's credit card statement. Looks like he's running awfully close to his credit limit! Add to the discussion on Tip'd.

A recent survey by online banking business HSBC Direct reports that people who are longtime active savers are enduring this economic downtown virtually unscathed.

Nearly half, or 46%, said they remain comfortable with their financial situation and have not had to cut back on spending, eating out or making large purchases. By contrast, 37% of non-active or periodic savers said they had to scale back on living expenses.

The old adage of saving for a "rainy day" is still good wisdom. But how many people are really willing to save? According to the survey, 85% were wiling to save more and spend less in order to get through the recession but more than 76% indicated they would return to old ways once the economy improves.

The survey also showed that most active savers started at a young age with the "saving" value taught early by their parents. Makes me wonder how many parents are teaching the value of saving in this age of "affuensa."

Women are having a tougher time with the financial crisis and are more likely to struggle to stay on top of their finances, according to a new report. Twice as many women (68%) as men (32%) sought help with their finances between January 1 and April 30, says Financial Finesse, a financial education company. Financial Finesse reviewed calls to its financial helpline service that is available to over 500,000 employees at more than 300 organizations, as well as usage of its online learning center.

Financial Finesse found that women who called the helpline were more likely to be behind with their bills than men. About 74% of women said they paid their bills on time, compared with 90% of men. Also, 43% of calls from women were about debt, compared with 36% of calls from men. About 29% of the women who called about debt were dealing with serious issues, such as how to avoid foreclosure or bankruptcy, or whether or not to borrow money from a retirement plan.

"When I looked at the research I was pretty shocked when we pulled these numbers to see how women are behind," says Nancy L. Anderson, CFP, a resident financial planner for Financial Finesse. Anderson says most of the women falling behind financially were still employed, although some had been laid off or had a spouse who had lost a job. But many of the female callers were more focused on helping others, which didn't help with their own financial situation.

In a piece on the surge in mortgage rates over the past couple weeks, BankRate.com gets this brilliant bit of wisdom:

There's another option: "We might even be back to looking at adjustable-rate mortgages," says Bob Moulton, president of Americana Mortgage, based in Manhasset, N.Y. He says some borrowers should consider the 5/1 hybrid ARM, in which the initial rate is fixed for five years and then is adjusted annually.

Have we learned absolutely nothing from this mortgage meltdown? People got into trouble buying homes with artificially low adjustable-rate mortgages and now with rates still under 6%, the president of a mortgage company is suggesting that borrowers make a bet that mortgage rates will remain low.

How likely is that? I'd say it's incredibly unlikely.

The chart above, courtesy of Mortgage-X.com shows just how low mortgage rates still are by any long-term historical standard. When you add in the enormous amount of money that is being flushed into the system, many experts anticipate that inflation will ensue over the next few years and mortgage rates could head much, much higher.

The relatively small gap-up in interest rates we've seen of late seems more likely to be a sign of things to come, then a brief jump before we head back to 4.75% -- So why would you take out an adjustable-rate mortgage?

The bottom line is that fixed-rate mortgages are more conservative, easier to understand, and far, far less likely to get you into trouble. Stick with them.