News

2022

January

20

• Efforts to rein in Big Tech may be running out of time. A Senate committee is expected to vote Thursday on a bill that would prohibit companies like Amazon, Apple and Google from promoting their own products over those of competitors. Many House lawmakers are pressing a

18

• What to do if you buy now, can't pay later. Buy now, pay later” can be a convenient payment method. But if you don’t factor the recurring payments into your budget, it can get messy. Revisit your budget (or create one) to

• Spotting spoofed websites. Here are a few things to consider when making a purchase online:  Malicious websites can be created to look like the real site from a reputable company fairly easily Never purchase anything with a

13

• Nearly $2 billion settlement over Navient student loan practices. Navient, one of the nation’s largest student loan companies, has inked a $1.85 billion settlement with a coalition of state attorneys general to resolve allegations that it steered borrowers into costly repayment plans and

07

• Cómo crear crédito cuando no lo tienes. Puede ser difícil desarrollar un historial crediticio sólido, pero, si tomas algunas medidas sencillas, estarás bien encaminado.

06

• Credit bureaus drew more than half of consumer complaints. A new report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reveals that more than half of the complaints the agency has received from the public from January 2020 to September 2021 were directed at Equifax, Experian or TransUnion,

• Here’s what pandemic aid remains available. There continues to be billions of dollars in federal rental assistance accessible to tenants who’ve fallen behind. The National Low Income Housing Coalition has a state-by-state list of the

05

• JPMorgan Chase has unleashed a lawsuit blitz on credit card customers. Early in 2020, as the pandemic gripped the nation, JPMorgan Chase offered to help customers weather the crisis by taking a temporary pause on mortgage, auto and credit card payments. But even as those words were

03

• Consumer Action INSIDER - January 2022. Start 2022 right with Consumer Action's INSIDER newsletter. Learn about what we are up to with the goal of improving consumer protections and consumer rights.

• Ambitious broadband funding has key impediment: an outdated map. The federal government is slated to pump a record amount of funding into projects to expand Internet access and affordability. But Edmonston’s experience highlights a critical obstacle to the historic investment: a dearth

2021

December

30

• Ban on surprise medical bills starts this week. If you are having a medical emergency and go to an urgent care center or emergency room, you can’t be charged more than the cost sharing you are accustomed to for in-network services.

27

• Many home insurance premiums are rising. Across the country, homeowners renewing their policies are discovering that rising material costs, supply chain disruptions and climate change are combining to drive premiums up by an average 4 percent to an average annual premium of $1,398,

23

• CFPB takes aim at ‘buy now, pay later’. The CFPB has asked Affirm, Afterpay, Klarna, PayPal and Zip to collect information on the risks and benefits of the BNPL offerings. Among other issues, the CFPB is concerned about the level of debt consumers

22

• Biden administration extends federal student loan payment pause. The Biden administration, shifting course on a crucial pocketbook issue for millions of adults, announced it will extend a pause on federal student loan payments through May 1 as the omicron variant threatens to hurt the

21

• The ‘most serious’ security breach ever is unfolding right now. On Dec. 9, word of a newly discovered computer bug in a hugely popular piece of computer code--log4j--started rippling around the cybersecurity community. By the next day, nearly every major software company was in crisis

16

• The return of the 10-minute eviction. Nobody in Phoenix was better or more practiced at the business of eviction than Lennie, who had personally removed more than 20,000 Arizonans from their homes during the past two decades as the area’s

• The ultimate guide to secure passwords. Password fatigue is real, but don’t let it stop you from making some small changes to protect your accounts, your wallet and your identity. Here are six easy things to do today: Stop

15

• Global investors gobbling up first-time homebuyer homes. Over the past six years, 19 of the 32 homes on Tammy Sue Lane have been purchased by a billion-dollar investment venture, part of an unprecedented flow of global finance into the American suburbs. The venture, Progress

08

• What you need to know if you’re being tracked down by a debt collector. What proof does a debt collector have to provide me that I owe the debt? This “debt collection validation notice” should include enough information to help you figure out if you owe the

• Amazon’s search results full of ads that may be 'deceiving’ consumers. More than a quarter of search results on Amazon are paid ads, according to the complaint filed by the Strategic Organizing Center, a coalition of labor unions. But because the company doesn’t clearly