Nation Consumer Protection Week

This week is National Consumer Protection Week. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other federal agencies participate in this week to help consumers safely navigate the markets for consumer products and services. This means also providing consumers with tools and resources to help them make better-informed decisions when confronted with an often-dizzying array of options.

At the CFPB, we are specifically focused on protecting consumers of financial products and services like credit cards, mortgages, student loans, and checking accounts. While you might use financial products like these every day, making informed choices about them can be tough. Sometimes, it might not even feel like you have a choice. Too many financial services products come with complex terms buried in pages of fine print, making it hard for borrowers to compare one product to two or three others. Financial terms can be confusing, and what you’ll ultimately pay – and what you are risking – is often not clear.

Last year during National Consumer Protection Week, we told you we would work hard to make consumer financial products and services easier to understand, and to make the markets for them more fair, transparent, and competitive.

Since the agency officially launched in July, here’s some of what we’re doing for you, as consumers:

We’re taking your complaints. We started with credit cards, moved on to mortgages, and now have the ability to take your complaints about a wide range of financial products and services provided by banks and credit unions.

We launched our supervision program. We are responsible for supervising not just banks, but also other financial businesses, such as payday lenders, mortgage companies, private student lenders, and others – collectively known as nonbanks. We will visit these businesses to make sure they are following the law and assess risks to consumers.

We adopted a rule to increase protections for consumers who transfer money internationally. One of our jobs is to write rules that tell financial institutions how to follow the law. This regulation will help protect consumers who send money electronically to another country.

We’re developing tools to help you make better financial decisions. Our Student Debt Repayment Assistant helps people with student loans determine their repayment options. We’re also working to provide educational materials to service providers working directly with consumers in their communities. Nearly 5,200 Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) locations around the country received materials from us that they can use to help encourage taxpayers to save some of their 2011 federal income tax refunds.

We’re looking out for you. All finance is personal, but some populations have unique needs. Staff from our offices for older Americans, servicemembers, and students are out in the field gathering information and looking out for consumers’ interests.

We’ve come a long way in the past year, but there’s still a lot to be done. That’s why we continue to seek your input on our ongoing efforts – we want to hear your voice as we make decisions. Together, we can make your experience with financial products better, so I encourage you to participate:

• Comment on a proposed regulation
• Help us design better disclosures for credit cards, mortgages, and student loans
• Tell Your Story

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will bring together under one roof a collection of important consumer protection duties that used to be scattered across the federal government. This week, we join a variety of government agencies to mark National Consumer Protection Week. This week is about raising awareness of your rights and resources as a consumer.

A critical first step in raising awareness is making clear where consumers can go for help with different kinds of issues. At the CFPB, we focus on credit cards, mortgages, and other consumer financial products and services. But obviously, there are other kinds of products that you buy and use every day, and there are other agencies that oversee those products. Here are some of the other ways that National Consumer Protection Week partners are working to protect you:

• Cell Phone Bills – When we launched ConsumerFinance.gov, we received many suggestions about changes in cell phone billing. The Federal Communications Commission, which oversees phone carriers, has information to help you understand why bills may change and what you can do to avoid “bill shock.” Learn more about the FCC’s work to prevent bill shock.
• Online Privacy – Advances in technology make it easier to find things you want or need online, but these advances can also make your personal information vulnerable to theft. Several government agencies have partnered with the technology industry to create OnGuard Online, which provides practical tips from federal government and the technology industry to help you guard against Internet fraud, secure your computer, and protect your personal information. Visit OnGuardOnline.gov.
• Health Care Information – There are many sources of information about insurance, medication, and health care providers. It can be hard to know which to trust, but consumers need good information when they make decisions for themselves and their loved ones. The Federal Trade Commission has created Who Cares to help you find reliable information about different health care products and services. Find quality health care information at Who Cares.

To find other resources with information about your rights and resources as a consumer, visit NCPW.gov. For more information specific to consumer financial products and services, visit our National Consumer Protection Week page.