Wronged Wells Fargo customers are finally getting a bit of payback

Wells Fargo has reached a $110 million preliminary settlement to compensate all customers who claim the scandal-ridden bank opened fake accounts and other products in their name. It’s the first class action settlement by Wells Fargo since authorities revealed in September that the bank opened up to 2 million fake accounts to meet unrealistic sales [...]

House GOP’s Bill to Eliminate Nearly All Class Actions Would Encourage More Ponzi Schemes & Other Corporate Cheating

Congressman Bob Goodlatte, introduced a bill ironically titled “Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act,” which passed through the House Judiciary Committee two weeks ago. Its passage was a remarkable feat of avoiding public notice or debate, with Goodlatte ramming through the legislation in the middle of the night, voting down all amendments along party lines, [...]

How You Could Get $500 Per Call For Those Unwanted Messages Six Years Ago

Did you get a telemarketing robocall five or six years ago offering a “free cruise” in return for taking a short survey? If you did, and you can prove it, you can get about $500 for each one of those illegal calls. Florida-based Caribbean Cruise Line and its two co-defendants — Vacation Ownership Marketing Tours [...]

Beware, mortgage seekers: Random, online ‘credit scores’ are not always reliable

A new legal settlement from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau alleges that Experian, one of the big three credit-reporting bureaus, “deceptively marketed credit scores to consumers by misrepresenting” them as “the same” as what their lender would use in determining whether and on what terms to offer them a loan.    In fact, said the [...]

Supervisory Highlights Consumer Reporting Special Edition Issue 14, Winter 2017

The CFPB’s vision is rooted in the obligations and rights set forth in the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Regulation V.1 In the last two years, we identified failings in compliance management systems and violations of law both at CRCs and at furnishers. As a result, we have directed specific improvements in data accuracy [...]

Wells Fargo Introduces Cardless ATMs

The bank is upgrading all 13,000 of its ATMs to process withdrawals using smartphones rather than debit cards. Chase and Bank of America plan to roll out their own version of cardless ATMs, too. Read More

Sub prime auto loans – Auto lenders can steer vulnerable people into crushing debt

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Should you give your kids access to your credit card?

Handing over your credit card to your teenager might not seem like a good idea. But it might actually be a smart financial move. Not only can it help kids learn money management skills, it can also help their credit score. Adding a child as an authorized user on a parent’s credit card can give [...]

Data breaches cause an increase in credit card fraud

Experian says that the biggest component of credit card fraud trends is the fact that 2016 was a record year for data breaches. There were 1,093 breaches, a 40% increase from 2015, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission recently revealed a jump in consumers who reported that their stolen data [...]

Wells Fargo is having a hard time getting Americans to sign up for credit cards these days.

Credit card applications at Wells Fargo plunged by 55% in February, the sharpest decline since the bank’s fake account scandal erupted last September. Another sign of trouble: Wells Fargo (WFC) said Monday that consumers opened 43% fewer checking accounts than a year ago and interactions with branch bankers fell by 21% in the same month. Despite taking a series of steps to [...]