Alex Huntsberger

OppLoans •

Summer Jobs: Teens and Young Adults are Working (and Saving!)

Young people get a bad rap for being lazy, but a new OppLoans survey shows that's not the case at all. Summer is finally here, and while you might think teens and young adults are all gearing up for some fun in the sun, it seems that most of them are using their time off from school to work. This might be a surprising revelation if you’ve been following recent reporting around teens and summer jobs. In 2015, Pew Research Center published a study on teen employment that found that less than a t
OppLoans •

Found Yourself On The ChexSystems Blacklist? Here's What You Can Do

A poor score from ChexSystems will affect your ability to open up a checking account. Here are some steps you can take to fix your score, plus a helpful alternative to traditional checking. People with bad credit get turned away from banks when they apply for a personal loan, but a poor credit score doesn’t mean they can’t open a checking account. For people who get scored poorly by Chexsystems, however, that is precisely the fate that awaits them. If you’re one of these folks, don’t panic. Th
OppLoans •

How to Identify, Avoid, and Report a Government Grant Scam

If you find it hard to believe that the government has decided to give you a bunch of money totally out of the blue, you're halfway home. In theory, everyone would love to get a phone call saying they’ve earned free money. But in practice, these aren’t phone calls that anyone likes to receive. Why? Because they’re almost certainly a scam. Someone’s trying to steal your hard-earned cash or even your identity. There are tons of ways that scammers can try to trick people, and they’re inventing mo
OppLoans •

Horror Films Cost Very Little to Make and They Make a LOT of Money

People love horror movies, and rubber masks are cheap. Producer Jason Blum has turned that formula into a money-printing movie empire. With a new sequel to Halloween opening this Friday, courtesy of director David Gordon Green and, um, Danny McBride, it’s hard to ignore that horror has made a huge comeback over the past decade. And a great deal of that comeback has come courtesy of man: Halloween producer Jason Blum, the wildly successful force behind Blumhouse Productions.
OppLoans •

Love and Money: A Brief History of Dowries

After a strong 3,000 year run dating back to Ancient Babylon, the practice of wedding dowries is finally going out of fashion ... for the most part. Figuring out money stuff when you’re married—or getting married—can be tough. You and your partner could be bringing two entirely different mindsets to the table, not to mention all your bank accounts, debts, and various assets—and yes, those mint condition Pokemon cards do count as assets, thank you very much.
OppLoans •

A Brief History of Point-Shaving in Basketball

There are good ways to make an extra buck and there are not-so-good ways ... and there's point-shaving, which is a really bad way. With March Madness just around the corner, NCAA men’s basketball is about to be the most popular sport in the country. But with greater attention comes greater scrutiny, and it’s hard to ignore the fact that college basketball is undergoing its fair share of scandals. Many of those recent scandals revolve around payments made to players. Oftentimes the payments are
OppLoans •

How Free Agency Can Help Pro Athletes Make Even More Money

Before free agency was instituted prior to the 1976 season, baseball players had almost no way to field multiple offers from multiple teams. As anyone who has ever had to bid against their friends and/or coworkers in a fantasy football draft can tell you, it is incredibly easy for the price of players to get out of control—and fast. But in real sports, the big price tags for players don’t happen through the draft. They happen through free agency. That’s because free agency is the only time wher
OppLoans •

Millennials Love Using Uber, But Seniors are the Ones Driving

Turns out that driving for a ride-hailing and rideshare app can be a great way for retirees to earn some extra income — and fill their spare time. When Uber started in San Francisco in 2009, you could be forgiven for thinking they would burn bright and then flame out. Going up against the taxicab industry was not a fight that any sensible person would want to pick. Of course, as we now know, Uber founder and ex-CEO Travis Kalanick was not a sensible guy—for better and for worse. Nine years lat
OppLoans •

How Much Do People Spend on Fantasy Football?

With nearly 75 million people playing fantasy football all across the US, sometimes it’s hard to tell what folks like more: Watching actual football games or trying to crush their friends in fantasy. But playing fantasy football isn’t just about the sweetness of victory for most people, there’s also the chance to win some sweet cash. So as fantasy football leagues across the country hold draft parties and gear up for their season, we wanted to know just how much money people are spending—and wi
OppLoans •

50 Places That Will Give You Free Stuff on Your Birthday

If it’s your birthday, then you deserve free stuff. It’s just that simple. However, we wouldn’t suggest that you walk into any old store and start taking the things you want. That is called stealing, and it is illegal. Even on your birthday. Don’t worry, though. We got you. Here’s a list of 50 businesses where you can get special freebies for your birthday. 1. Applebee’s: Sign up for the Applebee’s email list and get a birthday coupon for a free dessert. 2. Arby’s: Get a coupon for a free bir
OppLoans •

Dating App Dangers: 7 Tips to Detect Fake Romance Scammers

Online dating sucks. It’s so hard to tell whether someone is really who you think they are—especially when their photos are so “artfully” composed as to completely obscure their face and their “about me” section is nothing but Coldplay lyrics. But going on bad date after bad date pales in comparison to someone who’s actually misleading you. Dating apps and websites are full of scammers who use your desire to connect to “connect themselves” to your bank account. According to a report from the F
OppLoans •

You Can Get Charge-Offs Removed from Your Credit Report, But It Ain't Easy

Imagine if you took a test, and then your grade on that test followed you around for years and years afterward. You’re applying for an apartment, and your landlord looks at your grade. You almost have that great job offer in-hand, but first, your new boss has to check your results. Before you can get approved for a mortgage, guess what, the bank needs to double-check that you didn’t totally flunk. Have you imagined all that? Great. Well, it turns out that you don’t need to imagine anything. Tha
OppLoans •

Yes, You Might Need a Credit Check to Rent a Car

If you have a bad credit score, there are tons of ways that you’ll feel its effects in your everyday life. It will mean higher interest rates on your loans and credit cards, which cuts into your monthly budget. It might also mean paying more for utilities or at least needing to put down a deposit in order to secure them. It can even mean getting turned down for an apartment or a new job. In short, having bad credit sucks. Luckily, there are things that you can do to help your score improve, lik
OppLoans •

The 12 Worst Financial Scandals In History

If Olivia Pope has taught us anything, it’s that everyone loves a good scandal. And when it comes to managing money, there’s a whole lot of room for screw-ups, cover-ups and everything in between. So let’s take a stroll back in time, and revisit a dozen of the craziest financial flukes in the history of cash. In the early days of America, a pair of bankers named Alexander Malcomb and William Duer attempted to buy up all the U.S. debt securities offered by the First Bank of the United States. Un
OppLoans •

8 Ways To Save Money Today, Tomorrow and Every Day After

One of the main reasons that so many people fall prey to predatory no credit check loans is because they don’t have any money in savings. In fact, a recent study from the Federal Reserve found that 40 percent of Americans don’t even have $400 in savings to deal with emergency expenses. When they need quick cash, they have to turn to payday loans and high-interest cash advances. If you’re a member of that 40 percent, the time to take control of your financial future is now. Building up your savi
OppLoans •

How Much Would it Cost to Travel to Every Star Wars Filming Location?

And one of the great things about the Star Wars movies is that most of those alien planets are actually real places on planet Earth! If you wanted to really celebrate your Star Wars fandom, you could take a trip around the world to visit all of them. Sounds awesome, right? But also expensive. And while the cost might be less than you think. It’s still a lot. The cost of traveling to the filming locations (excluding studio lots) for all nine existing Star Wars movies would be just a hair over $1
OppLoans •

How Much Parents Spend on Their Kids State by State

As Mother’s Day approaches (it’s on Sunday, May 13th, in case you’ve forgotten), kids around the country are scrambling to find an acceptable gift for mom. After all, she’s spent thousands of dollars on her little rugrats over the years, is it too much to ask for them to drop some cash for some nice flowers or brunch, or at the VERY least, put together an inspired macaroni portrait as a token of their undying appreciation? To honor the financial burden of motherhood—and fatherhood—we wanted to
OppLoans •

Money at the Movies: Which Avenger Gives Marvel the Most Bang for Its Buck?

Over the past ten years, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has completely rewritten the rules for how Hollywood makes movies. Heck, remember when the phrase “cinematic universe” wasn’t even a thing? All of that comes to a head this weekend with the release of Avengers: Infinity War, the first of two Avengers team-up movies that will bring the current incarnation of the MCU to a close—with a pretty big bang. This got us thinking: As the MCU moves into a new phase, what can Marvel Studios lear
Load More Articles