Consumer Law

The Financial Reform's Effect on Consumers: Debit and Credit Cards, The Consumer Financial Protection Agency, Mortgages, Brokers' Duty to Consumers, and Credit Scores

By Brian Wolfman

This New York Times article explains the financial reform legislation's provisions having a direct effect on consumers. Some are in the House bill; some in the Senate bill; some in both. The House bill requires brokers to act as fiduciaries when dealing with consumers; the Senate bill does not. The Senate bill says that whenever someone uses a credit score to take adverse action against a consumer, the consumer must be given her credit score for free. The House bill is silent on that issue. A number of provisions in the Senate bill concern credit and debit cards. Here's an explanation of one on debit cards:

One last-minute Senate addition would lower the fees that merchants pay to process many debit card transactions. If banks lose revenue as a result, they could make up for it by adding fees to checking accounts or cutting back on rewards programs. Retailers say that once card costs fall, they will hire more workers and hold the line on prices. There is a fair bit of disagreement about who has the better argument.

Hard to see how consumers will benefit from this provision in the long run. If it is adopted by the conference committee, I suppose we'll find out. This article is worth reading in full.

Full post as published by CL&P Blog on May 22, 2010 (boomark / email).