Do ECOA protections apply after a credit-card loan closes?
Should a lender provide an explanation if it closes your credit-card account?
4 min read
Jun 29, 2022
EXPERTISE
- Consumer law
- Monetary policy
- Debt management
- Mortgages
EDUCATION
- MBA and BA in Economics from accredited Indian universities
- M.A. in Journalism, University of Mississippi
Making good financial decisions enables people to get more out of life, and I’m happy to contribute to that endeavor.
— Poonkulali Thangavelu
Highlights
- Extensive journalism experience covering personal finance and business topics
- Covered home price fluctuations leading up to the housing market crash
- Views credit cards as a good financial resource to draw on, if used wisely
Experience
Poonkulali Thangavelu is a senior writer and columnist at CreditCards.com and Bankrate, addressing debt and credit card-related legal and regulatory issues.
She believes that making good financial decisions enables people to get more out of life and is happy to contribute to this endeavor. She uses credit cards extensively and sees them as a good financial resource to draw on, if used wisely.
She has extensive journalism experience covering personal finance and business topics. She draws on her financial expertise (she holds an MBA degree, with finance and marketing concentrations, as well as a BA in economics from accredited Indian universities, in addition to an M.A. in journalism from the University of Mississippi, where she was awarded a graduate assistantship) and likes to simplify the subject matter to enable readers to make good decisions. And she has participated in the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton seminars for business journalists program to keep abreast of business topics.
While covering the mortgage market for National Mortgage News, she curated and edited a newsletter targeting the home-equity lending niche of the mortgage industry. In this role, she cautioned that home prices were getting out of hand in the period leading to the housing market crash that started in 2006.
She has also contributed to multiple business and consumer-oriented publishers, including Investopedia, CreditKarma and Multi-Housing News. Her work has been picked up by various national publishers such as the San Francisco Gate, Chicago Tribune and McGraw Hill, along with being syndicated to Fidelity, MSN, Nasdaq, Yahoo! and others.
Her career includes a stint doing consumer market research for global advertising agency Ogilvy (formerly Ogilvy & Mather) as well as experience as an equity analyst and writer.
Making good financial decisions enables people to get more out of life, and I’m happy to contribute to that endeavor.
— Poonkulali Thangavelu
Poonkulali's Latest Articles
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Fed’s upcoming interest rate hikes will take credit card rates higher
The Fed will continue on its course of rate-tightening until it sees inflation getting muted. This will impact credit card interest rates, with variable rates headed higher.
4 min read Jun 09, 2022 -
Credit card balances up 19.6 percent in April, per Fed report
Credit card balances outstanding continue a streak of growth as consumer spending rose with inflation. Economists see inflation moderating.
4 min read Jun 07, 2022 -
Credit bureaus report incorrect information about identity theft
If you have been a victim of identity theft and had accounts opened in your name, the FCRA allows you to ask credit bureaus to stop reporting on these illegal accounts.
3 min read Jun 06, 2022 -
Am I liable for my spouse’s credit card debt?
You are generally not responsible for your spouse’s credit card debt unless you are a co-signor for the card or it is a joint account. However, state laws vary and divorce or the death of your spouse [...]
3 min read May 30, 2022 -
Are my credit card rewards taxable?
The IRS generally doesn’t consider credit card rewards to be taxable income, but there are some exceptions.
3 min read May 30, 2022 -
Do all grocery store purchases earn grocery cash back rewards?
A reader wonders if all purchases made at a grocery store, and not just food items, qualify for grocery cash back rewards.
3 min read May 23, 2022 -
CFPB alleges TransUnion lured consumers with dark patterns
Digital dark patterns, such as those the CFPB alleges TransUnion engaged in, seek to market to consumers by misleading them.
3 min read May 20, 2022