American Banker’s Kate Berry reports in an article titled Could credit card late fees drop to $10? (behind paywall but probably available on Lexis) that the CFPB is expected to issue a proposal soon that would cut credit card late fees sharply. Under the Credit CARD Act of 2009, credit card late fees must be […]
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
My latest, co-authored with Nahal Heydari. It may be behind a paywall, but should soon be available on Lexis. It’s based on our article, Not-So-Smartphone Disclosures, which reports on the results of a survey of consumer understanding of credit card disclosures on smartphones and other computers. Here’s an excerpt: If we had graded the consumers by […]
by Jeff Sovern As Allison posted on Wednesday, the CFPB has proposed a rule obliging nonbanks that it supervises to register the contractual standard terms they use that waive or limit consumer rights. The Bureau would then make the terms public. I think this is a great idea for several reasons. We all know that […]
by Jeff Sovern. During the last Congress, when the House Financial Services Committee was led by Representative Maxine Waters, the Committee included a subcommittee named Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions. Alas, it is no more. It has evidently been replaced by the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy now that Representative McHenry is the […]
Daniel Collier, Assistant Professor of Adult and Higher Education, University of Memphis and Dan Fitzpatrick, Research and Assessment Specialist, University of Michigan, have written Jubilee and Jubilation: An Examination of the Relationship between Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Measures of Well-Being. Here is the abstract: A team of researchers at the University of Memphis and the […]
We received the following announcement: Automating Bias Symposium Cardozo Law School January 25, 9:30- 4:45 Algorithmic models built using machine learning and large volumes of personal data are increasingly used to target consumers with credit offers, assess consumers’ creditworthiness, price credit, provide debt management advice to consumers, resolve credit disputes, and more generally automate the […]
Each month, NPR broadcasts a story, “Bill of the Month,” about a medical billing issue. In this month’s, a hospital confused two patients who have the same first and last names (their middle initials are different, but that didn’t prevent the mistake) and sent a bill to the wrong one. Eventually, a debt collector dunned […]
by Jeff Sovern As I prepare to teach consumer law in the spring, I’m leaning towards adding a new case to the course, Bibbs v. TransUnion, LLC, 43 F.4th 331 (3rd Cir. 2022). First, take a look at what the court called a snapshot of the plaintiff’s credit report: Do you understand it (if […]
by Jeff Sovern New York Times reporter Emily Flitter's book The White Wall: How Big Finance Bankrupts Black America is an exploration of racism in American financial institutions, including banks, insurers, and brokerage houses. The book includes stories of how Black customers and employees are mistreated by these institutions, and places their treatment in a […]
Here, in an article by AnnaMaria Andriotis, an excellent reporter on consumer protection issues (behind paywall). The practice, known as credit washing, often leads to temporary removal of the damaging item from the consumer's credit report, and a correspondingly evanescent improvement in the consumer's credit score. Excerpt: Credit washing has slowed down the process of […]