After unprecedented levels of fraud by banks put the U.S. into the Great Recession in 2008, Congress created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to rein the abuse practices of consumer financial companies. This includes banks, credit unions, mortgage lenders, payday lenders, private education lenders, debt collectors, and credit reporting companies. Congress authorized the CFPB to enforce existing consumer financial protection laws and propose new regulations to protect consumers from … [Read more...]
Arbitration Clauses: The Gross Inequities That Control Virtually All Our Consumer Agreements
If you own a cell phone, use a credit card, or subscribe to cable or satellite TV, odds are very high that your contract with those companies contains an arbitration clause. Your employment contract very well may contain an arbitration clause. Your car loan agreement. The vacation you just booked with an online travel site. All are likely to have an arbitration clause buried somewhere in the fine print. And that’s bad news for you if you ever have a dispute with any of those companies. In a … [Read more...]
CFPB Complaint Database Exposes Bad Credit Card Firms
There's nowhere for credit card companies to hide, as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau launched a CFPB complaint database on Tuesday, June 19, 2012, a website that allows consumers to browse through complaints filed against large financial companies. The website will allow users to view the name of the companies that complaints were leveled against, along with the nature of the issue, the company's response, the timeliness of that response and the zip code of the complainer, MSNBC.com … [Read more...]
Class Action Certification: Supreme Court May Impose More Restrictions
It seems that little by little, consumers are losing their rights when battling companies in courts of law as the United States Supreme Court is set to determine if stricter requirements should be imposed on the certification of class actions in federal courts, reports Carey Been, a San Francisco consumer protection lawyer. The Supreme Court justices are using two separate cases as platforms to determine whether district judges must use stricter standards for class action certification in … [Read more...]
Mandatory Arbitration Clause Fight: Sixteen Attorneys General Stand Up for Consumers
Sixteen attorneys general, including California’s, have asked the federal government to protect consumers from mandatory arbitration clauses in contracts covering financial services. The group co-signed a letter to the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) last month. These clauses are written into contracts by financial services companies for a wide range of financial products including credit cards, payday loans and checking account agreements.These clauses forbid consumers from … [Read more...]
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