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Sarah Byrnes

Americans for Financial Reform and the Showdown in Chicago

October 22, 2009

The movement for consumer justice has gotten bigger and stronger, and if you’re in Chicago next week you can experience it firsthand.  Americans for Financial Reform (AFR), a big coalition of which AFFIL is a member, is organizing a series of demonstrations on October 25 – 27.  Over 5,000 people are expected to attend.
And that’s [...]

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Sun Sentinel shines on AFFIL

June 15, 2009

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 [...]

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Re-regulation on the Squawk Box

May 11, 2009

This weekend I got embroiled in a discussion with someone who insisted that government regulation caused the economic meltdown. This person is not alone in believing that regulation is always a bad thing, and can only cause harm.
At some point I realized that this was a silly debate to be having, sort of like whether or [...]

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48 hours left to save 1.7 million homes and $300 billion

April 28, 2009

The word from AFFIL’s Partners in Washington is that the Senate will vote on Thursday on judicial loan modifications.  Lifting the ban on these court-supervised modifications would save 1.7 million homes and $300 billion in home equity for neighbors of families facing foreclosure.  (For background info on judicial loan mods, see this previous post by [...]

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Congress thinks a 391% APR is a-okay

April 9, 2009

Last week, the House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit held a hearing on H.R. 1214, the Payday Loan Reform Act.  AFFIL and our Partners are calling this the “Payday Lender Protection Act.”  It’s the first bill that AFFIL has ever officially opposed (PDF link).  Unfortunately, the bill enjoys a lot of support and [...]

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Overdraft loans drive everyone crazy

March 26, 2009

Above, watch the trailer for Karney Hatch’s “Overdrawn!”, a documentary which chronicles his fight against absurd overdraft fees.  In his journey, Hatch ends up talking with several AFFIL Partners as well as Ralph Nader. He currently has an action posted on Change.org (a fantastic social network) where you can show your support for H.R. 1456, [...]

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Credit card companies hike rates and cut credit lines

March 17, 2009

It’s tough to follow up on a post about how to make a Black and Tan, but I’ll give it a try.  I was inspired to write by an interesting discussion over at the Consumerist about credit card rate hikes and credit line cuts.  Many AFFIL members have written to us about this phenomenon, and [...]

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Elizabeth Warren’s Financial Product Safety Commission

March 5, 2009

Senator Durbin (D, IL) is soon expected to introduce legislation which would create a federal “Financial Product Safety Commission” (FPSC). This concept was originally proposed by the ever-fabulous Professor Elizabeth Warren of Harvard Law School (pictured).
Her idea to make a regulator for financial products modeled on the Consumer Product Safety Commission has been floating around [...]

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Is the moment right to bring back a usury cap? (AFFIL Week)

February 13, 2009

Triple-digit interest rates used to be illegal. From Biblical times through the Middle Ages through English colonial law, people realized that the government needed to regulate the inherently unequal relationship between lender and borrower.  One by-gone civilization that didn’t do this was ancient Greece, and they ended up with loads of literal “debt slaves.”  Not [...]

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Does July of 2010 seem a long way off to anyone else? (AFFIL Week)

February 12, 2009

On December 18, the Federal Reserve Board released new regulations for credit card issuers.  The substance of the regulations is great – in some ways it’s even stronger than what was proposed (more on this below).  But the ridiculous problem with the Fed’s announcement is that, for some reason, the rules won’t go into effect [...]

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Moving forward: making financial regulation make sense (AFFIL week)

February 9, 2009

It is 2009 and the economy has tanked.  Subprime mortgage lending was the domino that started the whole mess a-falling.  Worst of all, there is no end in sight to the recession we’ve slid into.
The good news is that, in the midst of the mess, there is a rare opportunity to take a look at [...]

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Voters in Arizona and Ohio reject payday lending

November 13, 2008

Sarah Byrnes of Americans for Fairness in Lending is an occasional guest contributor to Caveat Emptor.
Great news for consumers and advocates – citizens in Ohio and Arizona voted on Tuesday, November 4th to reject payday lending.  Ballot measures proposed by the industry were soundly defeated in both states, showing that voters weren’t swayed by the [...]

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Payday loan measures on ballots in Ohio and Arizona

October 27, 2008

Sarah Byrnes of Americans for Fairness in Lending is an occasional guest contributor to Caveat Emptor.
In addition to all the other excitement surrounding this election, Ohioans and Arizonans will get the chance to vote on payday loan protections on November 4.  If you live in either of those states and you read this blog, you [...]

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New “Dangers of Debt” cartoon contest

October 6, 2008

Sarah Byrnes of Americans for Fairness in Lending is an occasional guest contributor to Caveat Emptor.
Consumers Union recently announced a new “Dangers of Debt” cartoon contest for young people ages 18 – 25. The winning cartoonist will receive $1,000 in cash!
Not artistically inclined? Check the CU website after November 6th to vote on the winning [...]

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Credit card insiders speak out against abusive practices

September 24, 2008

Earlier this year, former employees of MBNA and Bank of America contacted AFFIL looking for a way to speak out about disturbing sales practices they were trained to use as employees. Their stories confirm what we’ve long suspected: that credit card companies extend credit to those who can’t afford it, and engage in [...]

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Watch out for credit card hawkers on campus

September 4, 2008

If you’re heading off to college this fall — or taking one of your kids — be sure to watch out for aggressive solicitors offering t-shirts, pizza, Frisbees and even iPods to lure students into signing up for cards:

Most people know that college kids are a favorite target of credit card companies.  For some background, [...]

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New video about the mortgage meltdown

August 20, 2008

The California Reinvestment Coalition put together this great little nine-minute documentary about the subprime mortgage meltdown. The focus is on California, but the message resonates anywhere. They include priceless footage from 60 Minutes of Alan Greenspan admitting he didn’t understand what was going on in the mortgage market until way too late [...]

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Credit card victory for consumer advocates

August 4, 2008

Last week, something happened that hasn’t happened in 20 years: the credit card companies lost a battle in the House Financial Services Committee. Late on Thursday night, the committee voted 39-27 in favor H.R. 5244, The Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights, a bill supported by consumer advocates including the National Consumer Law Center, Consumer [...]

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Everything’s bigger in… Alaska?

July 30, 2008

Or at least credit card debt is, apparently. Our Partner CFED released this data as part of their annual Assets and Opportunities Score Card, showing that Alaska has the highest median credit card debt per borrower in the nation, at $3,384. (For those of you who slept through math class back in the day, medians [...]

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Common credit card tricks & traps

July 10, 2008

As part of our summer focus on credit cards, AFFIL compiled this list of common tricks and traps (PDF). We all know that credit card contracts are designed to increase the likelihood that cardholders pay high fees and get charged high interest rates. So while you will be hard pressed to find a [...]

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