The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Sterling Jewelers agrees to $11 million settlement for signing consumers up for store credit cards without their consent

Photo credit: M.O. Stevens

Sterling Jewelers Inc. has agreed to pay $11 million after investigations by the New York Attorney General’s Office and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that Sterling signed consumers up for store credit cards without the consumers’ knowledge or consent. Sterling also enrolled consumers in a credit insurance product without consumers’ knowledge or consent and misrepresented the terms of the store cards. Under to the settlement, Sterling will pay $11 million in penalties.

“By tricking consumers into enrolling in store credits cards, Sterling Jewelers betrayed customers’ trust and violated the law,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James. “This settlement holds the company accountable for its misconduct and ensures that no more consumers are deceived.”

Sterling, doing business as Kay Jewelers, Jared The Galleria of Jewelry, and other brands, is based in Ohio and operates about 1,500 jewelry stores throughout the United States.

Consumers need more information about how real estate transactions work, consumer group says

Two-thirds of consumers believe that real estate agents are always or almost always required to represent the interests of the home buyer or seller with whom they are working, according a survey. Yet, many agents working with consumers represent the interests of the other party or the interests of neither party.

A report by the Consumer Federation of America incorporated its research of the literature on real estate agency, its mystery shopper survey of agents, and a survey by ORC International.

“Today, many home buyers and sellers do not know whether their agent is representing their interests, those of the other party, or those of neither,” said the report’s author, Stephen Brobeck, a federation senior fellow. “Given the huge expenditure of a home purchase and the conflict of financial interests between seller and buyer, it is important that consumers know who their real estate agent is actually representing.”

FDA should ban widely used, deadly gout medication, consumer group says

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration should immediately ban the widely used gout medication febuxostat because it poses unique, serious risks – including the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease – and provides no unique benefit, Dr. Michael Carome, director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, said Friday. Public Citizen petitioned the FDA to ban the medication in June 2018.

The FDA convened advisory committees in response to a request from Takeda Pharmaceuticals America, maker of the brand name febuxostat product Uloric, for approval to update the medication’s labeling to include results of a recently completed clinical trial. The trial, which involved more than 6,000 gout patients, showed that patients taking febuxostat were significantly more likely to die from cardiovascular causes compared with those receiving the much older gout medication allopurinol.

Initial clinical trials testing febuxostat prior to FDA approval linked the medication to possible increased risks of serious cardiovascular outcomes, including heart attack, stroke, and death. The FDA rejected the medication twice due to these safety concerns before approving it in 2009 on the condition that the manufacturer conduct the now-completed large, post-market clinical trial to further evaluate the cardiovascular risks.

Did you overspend for the holidays?

About 93 million Americans, or 37 percent, overspent over the holidays, and 46 million people, or 18 percent if Americans, regret at least one holiday purchase, according to WalletHub’s 2019 Post-Holiday Shopping Season Survey.

“Buyer’s remorse is especially common when a purchase is made on impulse,” said Paul Rose, interim dean of the School of Education, Health, and Human Behavior at Southern Illinois University. “Many people procrastinate when purchasing gifts, and run out of time in December to carefully consider their purchasing options.”

There’s also a cultural connection between the holidays and shopping. Three in 10 people say that spending more makes the holidays happier, while two in 10 say that the holidays are worth accumulating credit card debt for.

Loan servicer settles charges it deceived student borrowers about lower-cost payment plans and loan forgiveness

Federal student loan servicer ACS Education Services agreed to a $9 million settlement Friday for steering distressed borrowers away from income-based repayment plans towards other, more expensive options. It also addresses claims that ACS deceived borrowers about the availability of loan forgiveness after a borrower works for 10 years in a public-service job. 

In addition to paying penalties and restitution to borrowers, ACS has agreed not to service loans for the major federal programs or private loans for five years. Most eligible borrowers will receive between $100 and $450. 

“Students rely on college to be a ladder to success, but too often prohibitive costs and disingenuous loan servicers trap students in a quicksand of debt,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James. “ACS has systematically failed borrowers by refusing to educate them on more effective federal repayment options, and instead, pushing them towards options that padded their bottom line.”

For-profit college to pay more than $493 million in debt relief to students due to fraudulent practices

Forty-eight attorneys general announced an agreement Thursday with for-profit education company Career Education Corp. to reform its recruiting and enrollment practices and offer debt relief of about $493.7 million to 179,529 students nationally.

CEC currently offers mostly online courses through American InterContinental University and Colorado Technical University. CEC has closed or phased out many of its schools over the past 10 years. They include Briarcliffe College, Brooks Institute, Brown College, Harrington College of Design, International Academy of Design & Technology, Le Cordon Bleu, Missouri College, and Sanford-Brown. 

The agreement resolves a five-year investigation into allegations that CEC made misleading statements or failed to disclose information to prospective students on total costs, transferability of credits, program offerings, job placement rates, and other topics.

How to return holiday gifts

About a third of American consumers returned holiday gifts last year. Hopefully, you kept your receipts and aren’t on a long vacation so you can take care of your returns efficiently and promptly.

The Better Business Bureau offers these tips for your holiday returns:

The seller’s return policy. If you don’t recall what the seller’s return policy is, check its website or the back of the receipt. If you have questions, call the store to ask about what you want to return. Retail stores may have different return policies than the company’s online website.

How is your Christmas Day going?

Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate this day, the annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ.

Nine-in-ten Americans — and 95 percent of Christians — say they celebrate Christmas, according to a Pew Research Center survey. These figures have generally held steady in recent years. Today, 46 percent of Americans say they celebrate Christmas as primarily a religious rather than cultural holiday.

Consumers spent about $1,007 for the holiday season this year, up 4.1 percent from the $967 spent last year, according to a survey conducted for the National Retail Federation. Hopefully, you kept your receipts so you can return clothes that don't fit or gifts that didn't meet their mark in terms of pleasing the recipient.

Facts and figures for the 2018 holidays

It’s that time of year. The holidays are upon us. Hanukkah has been celebrated and today is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, the day with the least daylight and the longest night. Christmas is approaching rapidly as is Kwanzaa, Dec. 26 to Jan. 1.

Celebrants

Nine-in-ten Americans — and 95 percent of Christians — say they celebrate Christmas, according to a Pew Research Center survey. These figures have generally held steady in recent years. Today, 46 percent of Americans say they celebrate Christmas as primarily a religious rather than cultural holiday.

Charter Communication agrees to record settlement for fraud in its internet services

Charter Communications and Spectrum Management Holding Co. have agreed to pay $174.2 million for defrauding internet subscribers. About $62.5 million of the funds will go to refunds for consumers, making it, regulators say, the largest-ever payout to consumers by an internet service provider, or ISP, in U.S. history.

Charter Communications merged with Time Warner in 2016, and has rebranded the internet, phone, and cable service as Spectrum Cable. Providing services to more than 26 million customers in 41 states, it’s the second-largest cable operator in the United States by subscribers, after Comcast.

The Tuesday agreement settles a fraud allegation that New York state’s largest ISP denied customers the reliable and fast internet service it had promised.