ALERT: Our financial watchdog shut down!

 

Our consumer financial watchdog was just shut down by the White House – leaving no one to stand up for you against the big banks, credit card companies, and scammers who are using every trick in the book to steal your money. Over the weekend, the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protect Bureau ordered the agency to cease “all supervision and examination activity,” closed its headquarters, and told staff to go home. This action leaves every one of us vulnerable, since no one is fielding complaints from Americans about fraud or financial abuse, or holding the financial industry accountable. Send a message to your members of Congress right now to protect our financial watchdog. Your elected officials have the power to stand up and do the right thing for consumers – make sure they know you’re holding them to account! Send a Message After you act, please share this with friends and family so they join you in standing up for our consumer financial watchdog. Chuck Bell Consumer Reports _________________________________________________________________ After the bank-fueled economic crash in 2008, consumers like you helped push Congress to create an independent watchdog to protect your money – and stand up to financial institutions and scammers looking to separate you from your hard-earned cash. Since then, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has returned $21 billion to consumers who were taken advantage of by the big banks, credit card companies, debt collectors and others, and held corporations accountable for violating the law. But our financial watchdog is under attack right now in Congress. Not only are some trying to completely defund the CFPB, efforts are underway right now that would block reforms that put money back into your pocket, and protect your sensitive data like Social Security numbers from being sold to the highest bidder. It’s critical your members of Congress hear from consumers who want a strong financial watchdog – not a big bank lapdog. Send a message to your Senators and Representative that you want them to stand up for you and your family, not the banks! Send a Message Efforts are underway in Congress and the Administration to block or repeal many of the pro-consumer rules we recently fought together for, including: Ending outrageous fees on credit cards and bank acounts. These new rules would cap credit card late fees at $8, and bank overdraft fees at around $5, which would save those that pay these fees more than $400 a year. The House is moving to kill the overdraft rule, and the Administration just stopped defending the credit card cap in a court case brought by the big banks, who filed suit to kill it. Rein in data brokers who share and sell your Social Security number and other sensitive information. A proposed rule was just put on hold that would have stopped data brokers from selling your data – including your income and your Social Security number. We just exposed this practice in our investigation of exercise equipment companies that give themselves permission to share your most private data with these brokers. Holding banks and payment apps accountable for fraud that cost consumers $10 billion a year. The CFPB was digging into how to combat fraudsters that trick people into draining their bank accounts, as well as make banks and payment apps reimburse customers for these losses. That work appears to be shut down. Stopped medical debt from being listed on credit reports, since a lot of medical debt is disputed or inaccurate, and isn’t a good indicator of a person’s creditworthiness. This rule, which the House is moving to kill, is expected to help more people get mortgages and raise the average credit score 20 points by those with this kind of debt. Make sure your members of Congress know that you want these and other important pro-consumer rules protected, and the CFPB’s work to continue. Your voice matters, so send an email directly to your members' inbox now. Send a Message And please, share this message with friends and family so they can join you in standing up for our consumer financial watchdog. Thank you, Chuck Bell Consumer Reports
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