| Comment Number: | OL-100044 |
| Received: | 10/28/2004 6:14:22 PM |
| Organization: | Union Federal Bank |
| Commenter: | Kathleen Lupke |
| State: | IN |
| Agency: | Federal Trade Commission |
| Rule: | Prescreen Opt-Out Disclosure |
| Docket ID: | [3084-AA94] |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
Federal Trade Commission Title: Prescreen Opt-Out Disclosure Subject Category: FACT Act -- Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) Docket Id: [3084-AA94] CFR Citation: 16 CFR Parts 642 and 698 Published: October 01, 2004 [FR Doc. 04-22039] Comments Due: Thursday, October 28, 2004 Comments Prepared By: Kathleen Lupke, AVP Consumer Lending; Union Federal Bank Comments: While it is important for consumers to clearly understand their right to opt out of prescreened solicitations for credit, I find one of the requirements of the proposed short disclosure to be unreasonable. I also believe that there is additional information that should be required in the long notice to enhance its simplicity and understandability. Understanding that the “layered” disclosure best communicates the consumer’s right according to the study performed, the proposed requirement of including three lines of 12-point size font seems inappropriate for two reasons. First, in many prescreen offers, the mail package is often one page; front side describing the product offer, and backside displaying necessary disclosures. In a single page solicitation, it can be challenging to fit all of the product benefits on the front page, many times resulting in a font size of 8-point or 10-point. Thus, a 12-point disclosure for an 8-point advertisement is difficult to adhere to. Second, while the front side of the letter already includes language referring the consumer to the offer’s disclosure on the back side, the relevance of the offer’s disclosure would be lost in comparison to the 12-point opt out notice. This proposal for the large opt-out section on the front side could prohibit the consumer from fully understanding the product offer, as well as take away from the severity of other important disclosures regarding the product offer. In order to comply with the successful “layered” presentation, I believe a reasonable proposal would be an 8-point size font on the front side, which would match the size of the second layer on the back side. While the proposal requires companies to disclose contact information on the credit reporting agency used to prescreen the consumer, I find that this does not adequately provide consumers with the necessary information to exercise their right to opt out. The consumer may perceive that by contacting the credit reporting agency listed, they are fully exercising their right and will no longer be included in these practices. However, in order for the consumer to fully exercise their right to opt out, they need to contact all three credit reporting agencies. I believe it should be a company’s duty to include the contact information of all three credit reporting agencies, rather than solely the agency used for that particular prescreen. This FTC proposal, in its entirety, is successful in implementing the requirement of the FACT Act; however, I believe that an adjustment to required font size for the short notice as well as an addition to the required agency contact information will benefit both businesses and consumers. Thank you for taking these comments into consideration.