The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is looking at how consumers can get better customer service from big banks. Consumers have the right under federal law to get timely responses when they ask for information about their accounts at large institutions. Read more →

Charles Schwab Corp. will pay a record $187 million to settle charges that it didn’t tell clients about the hidden costs of its robo-advising product, which was allocating client funds in a way that would be less profitable for them. The cash in the portfolios would cause clients to make less money even while taking on the same amount of risk. Read more →

Bank of America will pay $10 million for processing illegal, out-of-state garnishment orders against customers’ bank accounts. It froze accounts, charged fees, garnished funds, and sent payments to creditors based on court orders that should have been processed under state laws where the consumers lived. Read more →

Major national auto repair chains need to stop offering financing through EasyPay Finance and TAB Bank, which issue loans at rates up to 189 percent even in states where that rate is illegal. A coalition of consumer groups sent letters to the corporate offices for businesses such as JiffyLube about the loans. Read more →

A predatory debt collection operation is being shut down for harassing consumers. The operation was made up of several companies, including JPL Recovery Solutions, which used misleading and abusive tactics to collect millions of dollars from hundreds of thousands of customers. Read more →

College debts are one of the largest financial burdens for Americans. They make up the second highest type of household debt after mortgages, totaling $1.61 trillion. That’s about $37,000 per borrower. High balances with payoff times that lasts into middle age force graduates to delay other financial goals. Read more →

An analysis of real estate buyer agent commission rates on 17,805 home sales in several dozen cities throughout the U.S. found a high degree of uniformity among these rates. A new report – “Real Estate Commission Rates in 35 Cities: Uniformity and Variation” – released by the Consumer Federation of America offers details. Read more →

Intuit has agreed to a $141 million settlement to resolve allegations by 51 attorneys general that it deceptively advertised its “free” online TurboTax products. Although 70 percent of taxpayers qualify for the IRS Free File Program, operated by Intuit and others, less than 3 percent of taxpayers used it to file their returns in 2020. Read more →

MoneyGram, one of the largest money transfer companies in the U.S., held up funds and withheld refunds, the CFPB and New York Attorney General’s Office allege in a lawsuit. The company repeatedly violated consumer laws when it failed to deliver funds promptly to recipients abroad. Read more →

The Warrior Trading day trading investment scheme is being ordered by the FTC to stop making unrealistic claims of big gains to consumers. It alleges that the company and its CEO used those claims to convince consumers to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a system that failed for most customers. Read more →