Here, in the Boston Fed's quarterly newsletter. Excerpt: The problems inherent to the business model are most starkly exposed in the context of lawsuits filed by debt buyers. On the one hand, the debt buyer acknowledges in the forward-flow agreement that the data it received from the bank is limited and potentially inaccurate, with frequent […]
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
by Jeff Sovern The CFPB announced yesterday that the big three credit bureaus have added a function to their web sites to enable consumers to upload documents supporting claims of errors–police reports, copies of correspondence, etc–in credit reports. That shouldn't be a big deal in 2014, but in the world of credit bureaus, where the […]
Here. Excerpts from PIRG's news release: Debt collectors trying to collect debt from the wrong person were the top source of complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), according to a report released today by the U.S. PIRG Education Fund. The report also found that debt collection, the newest category in the database, is […]
Here. The top 10 complaint categories include: Category Number of Complaints Percentages Identity Theft 290,056 14% Debt Collection 204,644 10% Banks and Lenders 152,707 7% Imposter Scams 121,720 6% Telephone and Mobile Services 116,261 6% Prizes, Sweepstakes, and Lotteries 89,944 4% Auto Related Complaints 82,701 4% Shop-at-Home and Catalog Sales 66,024 3% Television and Electronic […]
by Jeff Sovern Housing Wire reports in Congressional Republicans mull bill to add CFPB oversight, that the House will vote this week on a bill to replace the CFPB's director with a commission and subject it to the congressional appropriation process. The bill is not expected to receive a warm welcome in the Senate or at […]
In August we posted a link to a paper Albany's Elizabeth Renuart had written, Uneasy Intersections: The Right to Foreclose and the U.C.C., 48 Wake Forest L. Rev. 1205 (2013), The paper has already drawn more than 500 downloads. An updated version is now available. Here is the revised abstract: Historically, the practice of […]
Here. Tim Danahey interviews Theresa Amato of Fair Contracts.org and Citizen Works. Theresa discusses how consumer contracts reduce consumers to "contract serfdom" and also explores issues governing arbitration clauses. Worth a listen, and if you are teaching consumer law this semester, this merits passing on to students as a painless way to learn about consumer protection […]
by Jeff Sovern There's been a lot of discussion recently about whether the Post Office should offer banking services. The idea is that it could serve the unbanked, and that its many existing branches would cover the entire country (Disclosure: one of my brothers works for the Postal Service, though we haven't discussed this idea). For […]
Mark Elliott Budnitz of Georgia State has written Buyer Beware: Georgia Consumers Can't Rely on the Fair Business Practices Act, 6 John Marshall Law Journal 507 (2013). Here is the abstract: In Novare Group, Inc. v. Sarif, the Georgia Supreme Court rejected the plaintiffs' claim that the defendant brokers and developers violated the Georgia Fair […]
Coverage by the New York Law Journal here and by Inside ARM.com here.