{"id":278,"date":"2022-01-28T19:19:54","date_gmt":"2022-01-29T00:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.pirg-test.com\/georgia\/articles\/whacked-bank-or-credit-card-junk-fees-cfpb-wants-know\/"},"modified":"2022-08-06T06:45:36","modified_gmt":"2022-08-06T10:45:36","slug":"whacked-by-bank-or-credit-card-junk-fees-the-cfpb-wants-to-know","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/dev.pirg-test.com\/georgia\/articles\/whacked-by-bank-or-credit-card-junk-fees-the-cfpb-wants-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Whacked by bank or credit card junk fees? The CFPB wants to know."},"featured_media":11566,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":false,"_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-description":""},"campaign_tax":[183],"display_option":[],"issue_tax":[],"person_tax":[],"region_tax":[],"state":[7,8,9,12,13,16,18,23,24,25,28,2,32,33,34,36,38,40,41,42,46,50,52],"topic_tax":[154],"class_list":["post-278","article","type-article","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"details":{"helper_taxonomies":{"topics":[154,162],"collection":false,"press_type":false,"person_type":false,"resource_type":false,"event_type":false,"campaigns":183,"department":false,"level":false,"states":[2,7,8,9,12,13,16,18,23,24,25,28,32,33,34,36,38,40,41,42,46,50,52],"act_option":false,"display_option":false,"primary":{"topic":154}},"featured_image":11566,"caption_override":"","excerpt":"If you\u2019ve been whacked by unexpected or unfair penalty or other junk fees by a bank, mortgage company, or credit card company, the CFPB wants to hear from you. You can send the CFPB a comment on its new \u201cinitiative to save households billions of dollars a year by reducing exploitative junk fees.\u201d Find out more here.\u00a0\nCover photo \"Fees Key\" by Gotcredit.com via Flickr. Some rights reserved.","updated_on":null,"sidebar_action":null,"hide_hero_image":false,"sidebar_action_query_string":""},"helper_people_group":{"title":"Authors","entities":[{"type":"dynamic","dynamic_person":{"site":4,"people":"192"},"information":{"name":"","image":null,"role":"","biography":"","contact":{"twitter":"","facebook":"","email":"","phone":""}}}]},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"

[Link to comment page updated 4 Feb 22.<\/em>] If you\u2019ve been whacked by unexpected or unfair penalty or other junk fees by a bank, mortgage company or credit card company, the CFPB wants to hear from you. You can send the CFPB a comment on its new \u201cinitiative to save households billions of dollars a year by reducing exploitative junk fees.\u201d Find out more here.<\/p>\n

The CFPB has followed up its recent\u00a0blog post<\/a>\u00a0outlining innumerable concerns about the credit card market with a broader\u00a0request for public comment<\/a>\u00a0on ending \u201cjunk fees\u201d in the financial marketplace.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Comments are due by March 31 to either\u00a0FederalRegisterComments@cfpb.gov<\/a>\u00a0or on the website\u00a0regulations.gov at this page<\/a>. Your email subject line must include \u201cDocket No. CFPB 2022\u201303.\u201d<\/p>\n

Know that the bank and credit card company execs are already lawyering up and unleashing hordes of PR flacks and lobbyists. After all, their tricks and traps and anti-competitive practices are under intense scrutiny over consumer harms. It\u2019s important that consumers tell the CFPB their own stories. The CFPB is the only federal bank agency with just one job: protecting consumers.<\/p>\n

The CFPB blog\u00a0last week\u00a0highlighted \u201cthree ways that the CFPB will focus on ensuring a more fair, transparent, and competitive credit card market:\u201d<\/p>\n

Blog Goal: Uncover unfair, anticompetitive practices.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>Back in the ten-year run-up to the landmark Credit CARD Act of 2009, I testified, along with other consumer advocates, numerous times on a problem the CFPB finds still hasn\u2019t gone away: some credit card companies withhold full information from credit bureaus so consumer credit scores will be lower so consumers can\u2019t shop for better rates. They become captive customers. I was not alone. From a\u00a0Federal Reserve study<\/a>\u00a0cited in 2003 hearings:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cA key measure used in credit evaluation\u2013utilization\u2013could not be correctly calculated for about one-third of the open revolving accounts in the sample because the creditor did not report the credit limit.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Blog Goal: Make it simpler to compare,<\/em>\u00a0switch,<\/em>\u00a0or<\/em>\u00a0refinance<\/em>\u00a0your credit card.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>The CFPB has a\u00a0mandate<\/a>\u00a0to give consumers more control over their own data. It says \u201cWe are considering options that will help Americans with credit cards escape high rates and lousy service. Consumers who have more control over their own data may be able to create more options for themselves to find better deals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blog Goal: Scrutinize<\/em>\u00a0junk<\/em>\u00a0fees.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>The CFPB says: \u201cWhile many of the worst practices that plagued the credit card industry were banned in the CARD Act of 2009, the industry is still heavily dependent on fees\u2026including $14 billion in late fee penalties alone in in 2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

While that January 19th blog was a warning shot to the credit card industry, this week\u2019s announcement applies to the entire financial industry marketplace:\u00a0Save Americans Billions in Junk Fees<\/a>. It calls many fees many names, none of which will make those well-heeled bank execs happy. The CFPB referred to fees charged by banks and other financial firms including credit card and mortgage companies as \u201cexploitative junk fees,\u201d \u201cunexpected,\u201d \u201cunclear\u201d or \u201cfor things people believed were covered by the baseline price of a product or service.\u201d And although several big banks have recently \u201cvoluntarily\u201d reduced certain overdraft and non-sufficient funds penalty fees, the CFPB wants a lot more to be done. So do we.<\/p>\n

As CFPB director Rohit Chopra\u00a0explained:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cMany financial institutions obscure the true price of their services by luring customers with enticing offers and then charging excessive junk fees. By promoting competition and ridding the market of illegal practices, we hope to save Americans billions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The CFPB release went to highlight the problems posed by a \u201cnew fee economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cCompanies across the U.S. economy are increasingly charging inflated and back-end fees to households and families. This new \u201cfee economy\u201d distorts our free market system by concealing the true price of products from the competitive process. For example, hotels and concert venues advertise rates, only to add \u201cresort fees\u201d and \u201cservice fees\u201d after the fact. And fees purportedly charged to cover individual expenses, like paperwork processing, can often greatly exceed the actual cost of that service.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I am sure that those well-heeled bank execs won\u2019t like their own pesky fee grabs compared to sketchy hospitality industry and concert ticket DRIP fees, which are\u00a0under scrutiny by the FTC<\/a>. But what\u2019s the difference between a \u201cdrip, drip, drip\u201d and a back-end, undisclosed fee strategy? Nothing that I can see.<\/p>\n

President Biden\u2019s recent\u00a0Executive Order on Competition<\/a>\u00a0urged the CFPB: \u201cto ensure that actors engaged in unlawful activities do not distort the proper functioning of the competitive process or obtain an unfair advantage over competitors who follow the law.\u201d This initiative on junk fees will do that and more.<\/p>\n

Comments are due by March 31 to either\u00a0FederalRegisterComments@cfpb.gov<\/a>\u00a0or on the website\u00a0regulations.gov at this page<\/a>. Your email subject line must include \u201cDocket No. CFPB 2022\u201303.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The CFPB wants to make our financial markets work, for everyone, including small businesses and at-risk consumers, not just powerful corporate interests. Tell the CFPB what you know about how junk fees harm you and your family.<\/p><\/body><\/html>","":null}}]},"yoast_head":"\nWhacked by bank or credit card junk fees? The CFPB wants to know.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you\u2019ve been whacked by unexpected or unfair penalty or other junk fees by a bank, mortgage company, or credit card company, the CFPB wants to hear from you. You can send the CFPB a comment on its new \u201cinitiative to save households billions of dollars a year by reducing exploitative junk fees.\u201d Find out more here.\u00a0 Cover photo "Fees Key" by Gotcredit.com via Flickr. 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