News & Headlines

• February 25, 2015 Student debt strikers risk ruining their credit for a cause
• February 24, 2015 Build emergency savings first. Then pay down debt.
• February 13, 2015 To combat fraud, Visa wants to track your smartphone
• February 10, 2015 Consumer protection agency seeks limits on payday lenders
• February 09, 2015 Charging low-income Americans to fix credit errors

Publications

CA News & Special Reports

2012 Fall Issue: Credit Card Comparison Site Survey Consumer Action looked at 54 sites to determine which ones offer the most useful and complete information to credit card shoppers. To narrow the list, we evaluated them using a checklist of key elements—and 13 met all or most of our criteria. Three sites met… ( Wednesday, October 31, 2012 )

On Our Radar

• April 23, 2010 Can financial education head off early conomic woes? A commentary in the Huffington Post delves into the problem of twentysomethings who are struggling to make financial ends meet and how financial education can play a role in heading off disaster earlier.
• August 13, 2009 Prepaid cards: New report finds fees, gotchas A new report finds that upon close examination, prepaid debit cards are laden with numerous types of fees and other gotchas.
• February 05, 2009 FDIC study: Serving the unbanked and underbanked In the first national survey of banks' efforts to serve unbanked and underbanked individuals and families in their market areas, the FDIC found that improvement may be possible in certain areas.
• January 30, 2009 Reasons you can't get your credit report fixed A noted national consumer law organization releases a report documenting the abysmal quality of the credit report dispute system provided for by law to protect consumers from errors in their credit reports.
• December 03, 2008 Old debt gets new rates: Citigroup raises credit card rates An article by Tim Westrich of the Center for American Progress discusses Citigroup's announcement that it would raise its credit card interest rates on 20 percent of its customers, just weeks after accepting $25 billion from the federal government.

Coalition

• January 21, 2015 Attempts to roll back the CFPB's authority to protect consumers Here we go again—those who have opposed increasing consumer protections and the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), are at it once more.
• January 06, 2015 Many companies leave limited-English-speaking consumers in the dark Families with limited-English-proficiency (LEP) are continually targeted for business, but abandoned when they run into trouble. Whether or not consumers speak English should not strip them of their consumer rights.
• April 28, 2014 SECURE Act helps consumers clear up credit reporting errors Data that determines consumers' credit worthiness, and the agencies that handle this data, should be obligated to ensure consumers' information is accurate and their inquiries and disputes are being answered. Consumer Action and advocates urge Senate to support the Stop Errors in Credit Use and Reporting (SECURE) Act, which pushes for more credit reporting transparency and accountability industry-wide.
• May 20, 2011 Real debt help Consumer groups provide solid advice on debt relief Consumer Action partnered with other national consumer groups to provide tips on how to avoid debt relief scams and bogus mortgage relief assistance. The Get Real Debt Help fact sheet explains debt relief danger signs, rules on upfront fees, and where to turn for real debt help. (Available in Spanish and English).
• April 14, 2011 Old exceptions to risk-based pricing rule must be removed before Dodd-Frank can work Consumer Action signed onto comments that point out problems with provisions proposed by the Federal Reserve and the FTC that would fail to remove currently-existing exceptions to the risk-based pricing rule (if the creditor makes a credit scoring disclosure) in the Dodd-Frank bill.

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