by Jeff Sovern In their book, More Than You Wanted to Know: The Failure of Mandated Disclosure, Omri Ben-Shahar & Carl E. Schneider mention the "Spanish Requirement," a rule that obliged sixteenth century Spaniards to deliver a speech in Spanish demanding surrender from New World audiences that did not understand Spanish. My research assistant, Eric Levine, dug […]
"Troubled by consumer complaints and loopholes in state laws, federal regulators are putting together the first rules on payday loans aimed at helping cash-strapped borrowers avoid falling into a cycle of high-rate debt," the New York Times reports this morning. Read "Rules Are Coming on Payday Loans to Shield Borrowers," here.
car title loans are marketed as small emergency loans, but in reality these loans trap borrowers in a cycle of debt. A typical car title loan has a triple-digit annual interest rate, requires repayment within one month, and is made for much less than the value of the car. – See more at: http://www.responsiblelending.org/other-consumer-loans/car-title-loans/tools-resources/what-are-car-title-loans.html#sthash.iYj0Yw6y.dpuf car […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has this on-line interactive tool for estimating what a consumer should pay for a home mortgage. Plug in loan type, amount, length, down payment, FICO credit score, location, etc., and the tool spits out the approximate market interest rate in the relevant location and the total cost of credit. The […]
by Peter Holland In anticipation of the CFPB’s forthcoming study on forced arbitration in consumer contracts, we can expect lots of rhetoric from industry about how arbitration is more consumer friendly than litigation, and that it results in better outcomes (i.e. more money) for consumers. (If this were really so, then how could a company […]
George Washington is having what looks like a terrific Consumer Protection Conference under the auspices of the ABA Antitrust Section on February 12. More information available here. Among the panels is a debate between my co-author Dee Pridgen and Howard Beales on advertising substantiation. As for how timely that is, see Steve Gardner's post on […]
We blogged last year about courts that send people to jail for their inability to pay their court debts. Yesterday the ACLU sued DeKalb County, Ga., over this unconstitutional practice, undertaken in partnership with a private debt collection company. According to their press release, the ACLU charges that "DeKalb County and for-profit Judicial Correction Services […]
Here are recent announcements relating to the work of the Department of Justice's Consumer Protection Branch: January 27, 2015 Peruvian Man Sentenced for Defrauding and Extorting Spanish-Speaking U.S. Residents through Fraudulent Call Centers January 21, 2015 United States Files Enforcement Action against Texas Debt Collection Company, Current President and Former Vice President to Stop Deceptive […]
Even when names and other personal information have been stripped from big data sets, as few as four pieces of random information may be enough to identify a specific person, according to a study to be published soon in the journal Science. The magazine explains: [The scientists] analyzed 3 months of credit card transactions, chronicling […]