Staff Writer

Bill Fay

Bill “No Pay” Fay has lived a meager financial existence his entire life. He started writing/bragging about it in 2012, helping birth Debt.org into existence as the site’s original “Frugal Man.” Prior to that, he spent more than 30 years covering the high finance world of college and professional sports for major publications, including the Associated Press, New York Times and Sports Illustrated. His interest in sports has waned some, but he is as passionate as ever about not reaching for his wallet.

Debt settlement papers being stamped "Paid"

Debt Settlement

By Bill Fay | September 23, 2019

Choose Your Debt Amount Advertiser Disclosure Expand Debt.org wants to help those in debt understand their finances and equip themselves with the tools to manage debt. Our information is available…

Family trying to get a mortgage with bad credit

How to Get a Mortgage with Bad Credit

By Bill Fay | September 12, 2019

There’s a saying borrowed from an old blues song about luck. If not for bad luck, the sad reminder goes, there’d be no luck at all. It’s a proverb with…

View the vast difference between Emergency Room and Urgent Care

Emergency Rooms vs. Urgent Care Centers

By Bill Fay | September 12, 2019

Differences in Urgent Care vs Emergency Room Costs Services Seeking medical care outside of an office visit to a primary care physician invites a long-term side effect common to the…

Help with Credit Card Debt

By Bill Fay | September 10, 2019

If your credit card debt is out of hand, you’ve got plenty of company. After COVID-related stimulus spending helped Americans pay off more than $80 million they owed on credit…

Blocks stacked with the question How should I consolidate my debt next to it

The 8 Best Debt Consolidation Options

By Bill Fay | September 6, 2019

Debt consolidation provides a solution to those dealing with the stress and financial fatigue caused by overspending with credit cards. If you’re using credit cards while struggling to make even…

Health insurance umbrella

What is COBRA Insurance?

By Bill Fay | May 8, 2019

COBRA stands for the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. While that may not sound like it has anything to do with health insurance, it’s actually a federal law designed to…

Do-It-Yourself Label

DIY Debt Consolidation: How to Consolidate Debt Yourself

By Bill Fay | May 8, 2019

Have you ever considered saving money (and reducing anxiety) through do-it-yourself (DIY) debt consolidation? If so, you’re in good company. American consumers knocked $180 billion off what they owed between…

Low interest rate displayed on stack of coins

Best Low-Interest Consolidation Loans & Average Rates

By Bill Fay | April 25, 2019

If you’re losing the fight with high interest credit card debt, this might be a good time to see if you can qualify for a low interest debt consolidation loan.…

Hands holding ribbon for Alheimers awareness

Financial Help and Resources for Alzheimer’s & Dementia Care

By Bill Fay | April 22, 2019

It’s a wrenching experience to witness loved ones suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, the progressive conditions that destroy memory and other mental functions. For the caregivers, it’s often a…

Signing financial agreement for divorce

How to Prepare for Divorce Financially

By Bill Fay | April 18, 2019

There is a lot of disagreement about what percentage of marriages that will end in divorce. Fifty percent is a commonly cited number, but some studies suggest the percentage is…

Bill to pay the minimum payment on credit card debt on table with money

Unable to Pay Credit Card Minimum Payment

By Bill Fay | April 8, 2019

Credit cards can be your best friend – unless you can’t make the monthly payment. Then they can become your worst financial enemy. It’s nice not having to pay the…

Pinching pennies for mortgage payment

How to Get Help with Mortgage Payments

By Bill Fay | April 4, 2019

If homeownership is the American Dream, then foreclosure is the national nightmare. Foreclosures have increased in 2022, though the numbers should be kept in perspective. That’s because the federal government…

Financial Assistance for Diabetes Treatment

By Bill Fay | March 22, 2019

Diabetics find themselves in an increasingly uncomfortable position these days: If the disease doesn’t get them, the cost for treating it will. The average diabetic spends $16,750 a year on…

Graph with Money and arrow flowing down indicating extreme loss of money

Your Options When You Don’t Qualify for Bankruptcy

By Bill Fay | March 19, 2019

Bankruptcy could be an option if your financial picture is bleak, but you have to qualify. If you don’t meet certain criteria, you may have to consider alternative debt-relief solutions.…

Financial Help for Domestic Violence Survivors

Financial Assistance for Domestic Violence & Financial Abuse Survivors

By Bill Fay | March 14, 2019

Whether you’re plotting to leave an abusive relationship, or you’re already gone, know this as part of your way to a better life: Your community has resources to make your…

Father holding daughter while worried about how he will pay his child support

Child Support Payment Financial Help

By Bill Fay | March 13, 2019

If you find yourself in a situation where you can’t pay child support, you definitely are not alone. According to the Office of Child Support Enforcement’s 2020 Preliminary Report, which…

Widow with her child looking for financial help and assistance

Financial Assistance for Widows

By Bill Fay | March 5, 2019

The emotional toll of losing a spouse is incalculable. Unfortunately, bereavement is not the only trouble that death brings. It may not even be the most lasting. The surviving spouse…

Judgement Proof Bankruptcy Books and Statue

What Is Judgment Proof?

By Bill Fay | March 4, 2019

How would you like to be deemed “judgment proof”? If nothing else, it sounds like a really good designation in life. Judgment proof is a legal term that could apply…

Online Debt Consolidation search results on table

Online Debt Consolidation

By Bill Fay | February 25, 2019

What Is Debt Consolidation? Debt consolidation is taking out a single loan to pay off the combined debt of multiple unsecured loans, meaning things like credit cards and personal loans.…

Man with bad credit signing debt consolidation loan documents

Bad Credit

By Bill Fay | February 13, 2019

Bad credit has a negative impact on your day-to-day finances as well as your ability to buy a home or car, rent an apartment, or, sometimes, qualify for a job.…

Chalkboard with guide on how to survive inflation

How to Survive Inflation

By Bill Fay | July 22, 2022

With a nod to Mark Twain, inflation has replaced the weather as the thing everyone talks about it, but nobody seems to do anything about it. Until now. Not that…

Employee resigning from his job

The Great Resignation: Why Is It Happening?

By Bill Fay | February 8, 2022

America has turned into a nation of quitters, though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Spurred by the COVID pandemic, millions of people have joined “The Great Resignation” that’s happening…

Man handing refund of cash

How to Get a Refund on Your Student Loan Payments During COVID-19

By Bill Fay | May 3, 2021

The rules governing repayment of federal student loans contain so many nooks and crannies that it shouldn’t come as a surprise that you may have missed one created during the…

Envelope containing the third stimulus check

Third Stimulus Check

By Bill Fay | March 10, 2021

The average Joe – not Biden – figures to benefit most from passage of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. Approximately 145 million Americans will receive a third round of…

$15 minimum wage

$15 Minimum Wage Increase: Will It Happen?

By Bill Fay | February 10, 2021

Biden wants the minimum wage – currently set at $7.25 an hour – to jump to $15 an hour by 2025. The increases would be phased in at approximately $1.75…

Joe Biden announces American Rescue Plan

Details on the American Rescue Plan

By Bill Fay | January 14, 2021

President-elect Joe Biden unveiled the American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 trillion war on the prolonged suffering of Americans hardest hit by coronavirus. Included in his proposal: a fresh round of…

Image of newspaper titled Covid-19 Relief Bill with ribbon attached

Covid-19 Relief Bill

By Bill Fay | December 30, 2020

The second COVID-19 relief bill is now law – all 3,126 pages of it. The people in Congress who passed it admit they don’t know what all is in it,…

Second stimulus check on top of the first stimulus check

Second Stimulus Check Update

By Bill Fay | December 29, 2020

If you haven’t looked at your bank account this week, now might be a splendid time. The long wait for a second stimulus check from the U.S. government finally is…

Calendar with dart on second stimulus date

When Will a Second Stimulus Check be Delivered?

By Bill Fay | December 23, 2020

A second stimulus check – the financial gift from the U.S. government to help consumers recover from the economic belt coronavirus gave the American economy – needs only a signature…

Google search bar with phrase student loan benefit

Google Is the Latest Company to Offer Student Loan Repayment Benefits

By Bill Fay | November 3, 2020

If the biggest employee benefit you receive is when your company bothers to fill the toilet paper rolls in the employee bathroom, you might not want to read this: Google…

Woman deciding whether or not to pay down student loans during COVID-19

Paying Down Student Loans Before the COVID Suspension Is Lifted

By Bill Fay | October 28, 2020

If you are paying on a federal student loan, you probably already know that the government CARES Act has provided benefits that suspends payment and interest requirements through May 1,…

Campaign buttons for Trump and Biden

Trump vs. Biden: How Their Plans for Student Loan Debt Compare

By Bill Fay | October 16, 2020

Americans with student loan debt have a $1.6 trillion question on their minds: What would President Trump or a President Biden do about all that money these 45 million borrowers…

Woman applying for a new credit card on her computer

Should I Apply for a New Credit Card During COVID?

By Bill Fay | September 24, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has created record unemployment, erased profit margins, closed businesses and wreaked havoc on almost every family’s money outlook. It has even affected America’s ultimate get-out-of-jail financial symbol…

Sign for VA office

VA Extends COVID-19 Debt Relief to Veterans Through 2020

By Bill Fay | September 15, 2020

Veterans indebted to the Department of Veterans Affairs won a partial payment reprieve this summer that will last at least through the end of 2020. The VA action extends a…

For sale sign in front yard of house

Coronavirus and the Real Estate Market

By Bill Fay | August 14, 2020

Dorothy surely wasn’t thinking of life in a COVID-19 pandemic when she clicked those heels in the “Wizard of Oz” and opined that ‘there’s no place like home.’ But her…

Senator Mitch McConnell at a podium

Details on the HEALS Act

By Bill Fay | August 5, 2020

Congress and the White House are still debating whether the HEALS Act, HEROES Act – or some compromise Act in between – will deliver the next round of coronavirus relief…

Nancy Pelosi at a podium

Details on the HEROES Act

By Bill Fay | July 21, 2020

When the House of Representative passed the $3-trillion HEROES Act on May 15, it all but guaranteed that a second stimulus check would arrive for Americans in need of financial help…

Bankruptcy court with COVID-19 sign

COVID-19 Bankruptcies

By Bill Fay | July 16, 2020

The storm is coming. American consumers will be filing personal bankruptcies in record numbers by the end of 2020. That is the projection from bankruptcy attorneys, bankers and other experts…

Image of the stimulus COVID-19 relief check distributed by President Trump

Stimulus Checks for COVID-19 Relief

By Bill Fay | July 1, 2020

The phrase “stimulus check” is second only to “coronavirus” or “COVID-19” as something to talk about these days and people are definitely talking. About 159 million Americans have received the…

Calendar with July 15 marked as tax day

Tax Season Countdown All Over Again

By Bill Fay | June 30, 2020

Everyone knows the old saying: Time flies when you’re procrastinating. Seems like only yesterday we were breezing past April 15 — the traditional deadline for income tax filing — and…