Forced arbitration being turned on its head.  Hopefully consumers will see the end of forced arbitration sooner than later.   https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-faced-75-000-arbitration-demands-now-it-says-fine-sue-us-11622547000?mod=hp_lead_pos6 Adam Zimmerman, a professor at Loyola Law School who studies class actions, said Amazon’s move could cause other companies to consider scrapping arbitration. But a wave of change is unlikely, he said, because lawsuits create more legal exposure.   ..read more

Was this sufficient compensation? The FTC alleged that some Vivint sales representatives used a process known as “white paging,” which involved finding another consumer with the same or a similar name on the White Pages app and using that consumer’s credit history to qualify the prospective unqualified customer. Vivint sales representatives also sometimes asked customers to provide the name of someone they knew who had better credit, such as a relative, then added that innocent third-party as a co-signer to the account without their permission, and used their credit history to qualify the pros ..read more

 https://www.cnbc.com/select/why-you-should-know-your-fico-credit-score-how-often-to-check/ Checking your credit reports for free at http://annualcreditreport.com/ is a good start But to know the score(s) used by most lenders -- the FICO score(s) -- consumers must look beyond just their free credit reports or even the Vantage scores offered by the credit bureaus ..read more

https://www.wsj.com/articles/was-my-facebook-data-leaked-what-you-need-to-know-11617751579 More identity theft, more ways for thieves to access credit in another consumer's name.   Consumers can still get free weekly credit reports from https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action for free credit reports.  ..read more

What to Know About the Facebook Data Leak https://www.wsj.com/articles/was-my-facebook-data-leaked-what-you-need-to-know-11617751579 ..read more

Consumers have a lot to do to stay financially healthy.  One of those priorities includes knowing what the credit bureaus are reporting. http://www.consumerreports.org/credit-scores-reports/why-the-pandemic-may-be-hurting-your-credit-score ..read more

Hard to think of a better way for a consumer to know what credit report companies are saying about them than checking your credit reports frequently.  Visit http://annualcreditreport.com/ for free weekly credit reports during the pandemic. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/19/your-money/credit-report-errors.html ..read more

Confirmation of President Biden’s nominee Rohit Chopra will pivot agency back to only job: protecting consumers WASHINGTON -- Consumer complaints about problems with financial companies such as banks, credit bureaus and debt collectors rose by more than 50 percent in 2020 and set new records for each month of the year, according to a new report from the U.S. PIRG Education Fund. The report, Consumers In Peril, which analyzed complaints received by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), was released Monday to kick off National Consumer Protection Week. [https://uspirg.org/news/usp/s ..read more

Reminder -- free credit reports available every week, not just once a year.   Know what's reporting about you including any errors.   Same website: annualcreditreport.com To dig deeper, obtain your free file disclosures from the many specialty consumer reporting agencies: https://lnkd.in/gJfZbHt   ..read more

Because of COVID-19, unemployment rates are high and many people’s cash flows are low. Scammers view these as ripe conditions to strike. They’ll stop at nothing — not even a pandemic — to trick you into sharing your personal or financial information. That includes pretending to be a government official from the Federal Trade Commission to gain your trust.    https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2020/06/fake-emails-about-fake-money-fake-covid-19-fund?utm_source=govdelivery ..read more