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AFFIL

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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Reverse Mortgages Threaten Seniors’ Wealth

October 9, 2009

A new report from the National Consumer Law Center explains in detail how “[a]buses and abusers from the subprime mortgage industry have begun showing up in the reverse mortgage market, putting at risk the equity and savings of millions of seniors.” (Report is here (pdf); press release is here (pdf).)
In the aftermath of the implosion [...]

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Private Student Loans: A Last Resort That’s Too Often Used First

August 31, 2009

Private student loans are more expensive, riskier, and come with fewer borrower protections than federal student loans. Nevertheless, almost two-thirds of the undergraduates who took out private student loans during the 2007-2008 school year did so without first obtaining the maximum federal loans for which they were qualified. In fact, over a quarter of students [...]

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Reverse mortgages: trouble brewing

July 2, 2009

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 [...]

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Consumer Financial Protection Agency must have teeth and be flexible

June 18, 2009

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 [...]

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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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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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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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Thank goodness this COP is on the beat (AFFIL Week)

February 10, 2009

On January 29, the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP) released its Special Report on Regulatory Reform (PDF link). The COP, established by Congress to oversee the Treasury’s bailout plan, is chaired by Harvard law professor and consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren. The report argues that the roots of the current crisis lie in twenty-five years of financial [...]

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This week: guest bloggers AFFIL and Nick Slade

February 8, 2009

We are looking forward to a great week! Sarah Byrnes and Jim Campen of AFFIL will be joining us to talk lending, and Nick Slade will be joining us to talk auto fraud.
Look forward to lots of great posting from Sarah, Jim, and Nick, starting tomorrow!

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Next week: Sarah Byrnes and Jim Campen of AFFIL

February 6, 2009

Part-time bloggers Sarah Byrnes and Jim Campen of Americans for Fairness in Lending will be joining us as guest posters next week. Here is more on AFFIL, and you can read more about Sarah and Jim after the break.

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Banks bribe colleges to let them sign up students on campus

January 2, 2009

In an effort to sign up as many suckers students as possible, many credit card companies advertise on college campuses. They give away things like t-shirts, water bottles, and other cheap prizes, but only to students who apply for a credit card.
This access to new borrowers is worth a lot of money. Bank of America [...]

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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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Angry Consumers Flood Federal Reserve Board with Complaints

July 1, 2008

Press release from Americans for Fairness in Lending. Full release after the jump (it is not yet up on AFFIL’s website, so I cannot link to it).

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AFFIL’s Jim Campen and Sarah Byrnes join Caveat Emptor

April 29, 2008

I am pleased to welcome Jim Campen and Sarah Byrnes from Americans for Fairness in Lending to Caveat Emptor. Sarah will be posting weekly, and Jim will chime in from time to time, as well.
AFFIL stands for the proposition that maybe the lending industry could use a little regulation, after all (hey, Judge Posner thinks [...]

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New consumer blog: We Are the 90 Percent

April 4, 2008

Sarah Byrnes at Americans for Fairness in Lending just e-mailed me a link to We Are the 90 Percent, “a punk rock academic pursuit.” Usually I wait for newer blogs to show some maturity, but a consumer blog that mentions punk rock and contains a poem for everyone’s favorite bankruptcy law professor, Elizabeth Warren is [...]

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