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In recent years, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)– the main federal regulator of the nation’s biggest banks – has seemed concerned with consumer protection only when it was acting aggressively to protect “its” banks from the prospect of being sued by state attorneys general for their predatory practices. The OCC pursued this anti-consumer agenda so aggressively that even conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, in a blistering Supreme Court opinion issued earlier this week, felt compelled to denounce their over-reaching.
In a little-noticed speech (pdf) on July 8, however, Comptroller John Dugan – perhaps trying to repair his agency’s tattered reputation – came across as a born-again consumer protector.
Cory Doctorow’s post on sharing passwords after death was timely for me. My wife and I are currently working on our own wills and estate plans, and wrestling with how to ensure we are able to access one another’s digital information. Like Doctorow, our digital information is locked up safely in encrypted filesystems.
His solution is to split his master password in half, giving one half to his spouse, and one half to his lawyer. It is a good, long-term solution, but I am nervous about having any of my password written down anywhere, so we went another route.
My wife and I share a single long and complicated password, which neither of us has written down anywhere. Should I die, she can use our password to unlock my data, and with it, all my other passwords. The same goes for her. Simple and effective.
If you have a different plan for accessing your spouse’s digital data after death, I would love to hear about it.
He points out two important features of the loan modification options: (1) they are need-based; and (2) they will not reduce the loan principal.
Need-based means that consumers can obtain a mortgage loan modification only if they can prove they cannot afford their current payments. I am guessing the banks take an expansive view of the term “afford,” which counts out a lot of people.
More importantly, only terms of the loan like interest rates, fixed v. adjustable rate, and length of the loan will be modified. For consumers stuck with homes valued at far less than the loan, this is bad news. If the bank cannot make the loan payments affordable without reducing the principal, they may simply proceed with foreclosure, even though everyone would probably come out ahead if the bank simply reduced the principal on the loan.
But hey, I don’t think anyone believes that banks are rational actors in the economy, anymore.
Bad news: property values are way down, to the point where many people are sitting on mortgages at or above what they paid for their house.
Good news: mortgage rates are low, making it a great time to refinance. You can also install energy efficient appliances to put some money in your pocket.
But before you refinance—be sure to check all your bases. Here are a few things to consider before moving forward.
How would you like to get a call like this, just because you are behind on your credit cards?
“Hello, this is Investigator Brook Carlson from the Warrant Division. This is the last time I am going to attempt to contact you,” the caller said in one message. “We have left this message numerous times, and it seems that you are disregarding all means of contacting us back. So, therefore, you are going to be picked up at Hillcrest Hospital. You’ll come in, then the warrant is actually going to be formalized in McLennan County. Make sure you have somewhere for your kids to go, lock up your house, get some clean clothes because you’re not coming home anytime soon.”
Being in debt is not a crime, no matter what the jerk on the phone may say. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo put it well: “Just because you’re behind on credit cards doesn’t mean you forfeit all rights.” Which is why the Buffalo, NY, collection office that uttered the above quote will be shut down by order of New York judge.
Cable companies, perhaps more than any other product providers love to entice new subscribers with new packages at low rates. Existing customers tend to get nothing—other than frustrated.
Maybe that has changed.
I use Comcast—for cable ($60/month) and internet service ($45/month). I saw a recent promo for cable and internet for $69.99 for 6 months, called and asked about it, and was told “only for new customers.”
So I called back, talking to someone else. He tried to sell me phone service, which I didn’t want. I told him I would like to save some money. He offered to downgrade my internet to 1MPS/second (slow as crap) which would save me $17 a month.
Undeterred, I told him the promotional price would save me more than that, and perhaps I just need to cancel my cable service to save more money—because I needed to cut my household costs. I was then transferred to a specialist.
Earlier this week, President Obama announced his plan to create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency as part of his financial reform package. It is a great idea, and I hope it will succeed.
Why we need it
If you buy a sports car, you are not likely to accept a station wagon when you go to pick up your new car. But that happens all the time with financial products, because most consumers would not know the difference between the paperwork for a teaser-rate mortgage with a balloon payment and the paperwork for a clean, 30-year fixed mortgage. The market does not work when good products are indistinguishable from bad ones. The CFPA will be able to do so.
Further, while Congress and state governments can create laws to regulate financial products, they are a cumbersome regulator, often ineffective for addressing a nimble, frequently-changing financial marketplace. The CFPA will be able to move quickly to address emerging financial products.
In case you missed it, NPR has a really great story on why we need arbitration reform.
The piece starts out with the story of Jamie Leigh Jones a 20-year-old Halliburton/KBR employee in 2005, who was in Iraq for only four days before she was brutally gang raped by fellow employees. No criminal action was ever taken against the rapist who continued to work for Haliburton, so she is trying to sue in civil court. Haliburton/KBR are arguing that she cannot sue; instead, she must arbitrate.
The article also hit many of the points that Sam, I, and others have raised over and over about the biases against consumers in the arbitration system. While I think arbitration may have it place in busines-to-business transactions, where there is some equality in negotiating power, it has no place in consumer transactions.
This is a great week for AFFIL because our friend Denise Richardson devoted an entire column to us at the Florida Sun Sentinel. (Thanks again Denise!) You can see her column here.
Coincidentally, a while back Sam asked me to write a “what AFFIL is up to” blog post, and lucky for me, Denise has now done some of the work for me. Here’s an excerpt of what she has to say:
Local channel KARE 11 on the effect of rental foreclosures on tenants. This video features HOME Line, a Minnesota tenant advocacy hotline doing great work to help tenants dealing with their landlord’s foreclosures.
Never assume the next tenant will put utilities in their own name. Or if you move out and leave behind a roommate or sublease to someone, never assume they will do it, either.
When you move, make sure you call your utility providers to let them know you are moving and that they should remove your [...]
Thinking of using a debt settlement firm? Think again. These services don’t help you as much as you think.
Many of these firms are not helping as much as their subscribers think—sometimes at least half of what the customers pay goes to administrative fees—money that is never paid on the customer’s behalf.
The Minnesota Legislature, at the [...]
Randall Ryder just graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School. During his third year, he was my student teacher in the Maynard Pirsig Moot Court program. He is studying for the Minnesota bar exam, helping me represent consumers, and trying to salvage a bit of summer vacation, I imagine.
After he passes the Minnesota bar, [...]
The credit card industry is purging accounts, shutting down just over 19% of their accounts in the past year. As you can see, that is a huge increase over past rates. And this is on top of all the credit limit reductions (not to mention lines of credit). Since the industry is threatening further account [...]
It has been a little over a year since Caveat Emptor’s last redesign, but I was feeling like it was time for a change. Hope you like the new look; it makes things easier for me on the back end. I am sure it will change over the next few weeks while I tweak the [...]
According to an editorial in last Friday’s Washington Post, the credit card bill that the President signed into law that afternoon “isn’t really needed” because it is “awfully similar” to the regulations on credit cards that were issued by the Federal Reserve last December.
Wrong!
In fact, the new law is remarkably broader and stronger than the [...]
FreeCreditReport.com is sort of an “honest” scam. “Hey, we’re FreeCreditReport.com! Nah, you have to pay for your free credit report. Yeah, but the name is FREECreditReport.com!!! But you totally have to pay. For your FREE FREE FREE credit report.”
Under the new credit card reform legislation, outfits like FreeCreditReport.com that offer free* services will have to [...]
In recent years, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)– the main federal regulator of the nation’s biggest banks – has seemed concerned with consumer protection only when it was acting aggressively to protect “its” banks from the prospect of being sued by state attorneys general for their predatory practices. The OCC pursued this anti-consumer agenda so aggressively that even conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, in a blistering Supreme Court opinion issued earlier this week, felt compelled to denounce their over-reaching.
Cory Doctorow’s post on sharing passwords after death was timely for me. My wife and I are currently working on our own wills and estate plans, and wrestling with how to ensure we are able to access one another’s digital information. Like Doctorow, our digital information is locked up safely in encrypted filesystems.
Bad news: property values are way down, to the point where many people are sitting on mortgages at or above what they paid for their house.
Cable companies, perhaps more than any other product providers love to entice new subscribers with new packages at low rates. Existing customers tend to get nothing—other than frustrated.
Earlier this week, President Obama announced his plan to create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency as part of his financial reform package. It is a great idea, and I hope it will succeed.
This is a great week for AFFIL because our friend Denise Richardson devoted an entire column to us at the Florida Sun Sentinel. (Thanks again Denise!) You can see her column 