Initiative
Americans for Financial Reform

$12 billion in relief to scammed consumers ... as a result of having the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

$12 billion in relief to scammed consumers

Gynnie Robnett info@ourfinancialsecurity.org via sg.actionnetwork.org

December 15, 2016 to me

Dear Peter,

Did you know that if you have a dispute with your bank or financial company, that there’s an agency in Washington devoted to helping you resolve it?

When banks steal our money, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fights to get it back. Since opening its doors in July 2011, the Bureau has delivered nearly $12 billion in relief to some 27 million Americans defrauded by banks or financial companies. Because of this great success, the Bureau is in serious danger of being one of the first targets of the incoming Trump Administration.

One of the ways the Bureau fights for everyday Americans is through its complaint system. Whether you’re having a problem with your mortgage, credit card, or student loans, or if you’re being harassed by a debt collector, the Consumer Bureau provides you with a single place where you can go to complain: http://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/. Those complaints help inform the Bureaus oversight of the companies they supervise, and know what to look out for.

Once you submit a complaint, the Consumer Bureau forwards it to the company, which has 15 days to respond (and 60 days to resolve). If you’re not satisfied with the response, you can let the Bureau know. The Bureau has already handled more than one million complaints -- it has helped many others, and may be able to help you. (If you’ve submitted a complaint to the Bureau in the past and had it resolved, can you send us an email to let us know?)

Here’s just a couple of examples of the kinds of things you can report to the Consumer Bureau’s complaint system:

• Many of us are struggling to repay our student loans. In fact, more than 42 million Americans hold over $1.3 trillion in student loan debt. Often, student loan borrowers face extra fees, inaccurate or wrong information, double charges, lost paperwork and a variety of other roadblocks. If you’re having trouble with your student loan servicer, you can file a Student Loan complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

• Have you ever been charged by your credit card company for an add-on product you never asked for? Or been charged for an overdraft fee, even though you never agreed to overdraft coverage? If so, you can file a Credit Card complaint with the Bureau.

The Consumer Bureau is dedicated to fighting for everyday Americans, and the complaint system is one of the many ways it does that. Will you help us spread the word about the Consumer Bureau, by forwarding this email along to five friends?

Thanks for everything you do,

Gynnie Robnett, Americans for Financial Reform

Here at Americans for Financial Reform, we work day in and day out to make sure the big banks don't always get the last word – with the press, with regulators, and with legislators. We try to shine a spotlight on key decisions facing the bank oversight agencies and lawmakers, so more people can see what they’re doing and hold them accountable. And we work to build a chorus for reform, to push policymakers in the legislative and executive branches to stand up to Wall Street and adopt and enforce tough new rules. Find us on Facebook and Twitter.

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