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Consumer Law

California Credit Law Blog

Covers California Consumer Law, including news and events dealing with Consumer Law.
By Kemnitzer, Anderson, Barron, Ogilvie & Brewer

Post Frequency: 0.6/day

Last Entry: March 21, 2011 at 21:15:33

New Rule Protects Federal Benefit Checks from Seizure by Creditors

Posted on March 21, 2011
A new federal rule effective May 1, 2011, vastly strengthens protections for Social Security, SSI, VA, federal retirement checks, and certain other federal benefits from seizure by creditors. Heretofore, in theory such benefits were protected, but not in practice...

Identity Theft Leads in Numbers of Consumer Complaints

Posted on March 21, 2011
The FTC reports that identity theft was the number one consumer complaint it and other federal agencies it and they receive from consumers in 2010. The agency annually publishes what it calls the Sentinel Network of consumer complaints. Last year, 6,460 California residents reported they were the victims of identity theft, which was 17% of all consumer complaints...

New Rule Requires Lenders to Disclose Credit Scores

Posted on March 01, 2011
Today, the FTC and Fed Reserve announced that lenders will be required to provide free credit scores to borrowers when the lender uses a credit report to set high interest rates or other loan terms that aren't the best available. The new rule will likely go into effect in July 2011...

IRS Makes it Easier to Get Tax Liens off Credit Reports

Posted on February 25, 2011
IRS has changed its rules concerning the filing of tax liens against taxpayers, which IRS reports to the credit reporting agencies. Tax liens dramatically reduce credit scores. It has been difficult to get the tax liens off one's credit reports even when the lien is paid...

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The CARD Act Is Benefitting Consumers

Posted on February 23, 2011
Surveys by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have found that the nine largest credit credit card banks represeenting 90% of the market have stopped hiking interest rates on customers' existing balances, reduced penalty fees and all but eliminated overlimit charges as a result of the CARD Act enacted last year...

Experian Reporting Rent Data on Credit Reports

Posted on January 19, 2011
Experian has announced it will be reporting "positive" rental data from its RentBureau� division into the traditional credit files. Experian states this will help the 50 million underbanked consumers, such as college students and recent immigrants, to build credit with on-time rental payments...

All About FICO Credit Scores from the FICO CEO

Posted on January 12, 2011
Mark Greene, chief executive of Fair, Isaac & Co., creator and proprietor of the FICO score provided this explanation of credit scores: "The FICO score is a measure of a consumer's financial health and creditworthiness," Greene says. It's simply a number, ranging from 300 to 850 -- the higher the better...

Fraudsters Get $3.5M in Mortgages in Victim's Name!

Posted on December 22, 2010
In 2006, Benjamin Woods' personal identification documents were stolen by fraudsters. Using Woods' name and information, they obtained mortgages on houses in Concord and Oakland totaling $3.5 million. The fraudsters defaulted on the loans soon after the purchases were complete; months later the mortgage companies foreclosed...

AOB Files Databreach Case Against New York Life Insurance Co

Posted on December 22, 2010
In 2008, clients Jayni and Dan Fontaine applied for life insurance from New York Life Insurance Company. To be approved, they had to pass medical exams. As part of the exam process, they provided their personal identifying information. Their information and that of over 100 other persons went into a computerized database accesible by New York Life representatives...

Large Jury Verdict Against Equifax in Identity Theft Case

Posted on December 10, 2010
Equifax has a judgment against it for more than a million dollars to a Bay Area man whose identity was stolen. While the consumer was hospitalized, an impostor used his identity to open fraudulent accounts. He found the fraudulent accounts on his credit reports from Experian, Equifax and TransUnion and disputed them...

Why Should I Bother Writing a Letter When I Can Call or Email?

Posted on December 10, 2010
Frequently people ask me how they can get the credit bureaus to correct inaccurate information on their credit reports. I always tell them to dispute inaccurate credit reports via letter sent Certified Mail, Return Receipt. Why do that, you ask, when I can dispute on-line or by phone? If you look at their websites, you know the credit bureaus encourage consumers to phone or email...

Experian Asks US Supreme Court to Hear Towing Collection Case

Posted on December 10, 2010
In 2003, Mrs Pintos sued a debt collector that had used her credit report to collect a tow company's bill for towing her car from a San Francisco street. Her claim is that the debt collector violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act because it lacked a permissible purpose to look at her credit report...

Medical Errors Trip up Consumers Trying to Refinance

Posted on December 10, 2010
Today, the WSJ reports that consumer's medical bills, even disputed ones, are hurting their credit scores. One example is a woman in Texas had two erroneous $11 doctor bills on her credit reports that stopped her from refinancing her home. The bills had been sent to a collection agency...

Service Members Risk Identity Theft

Posted on December 07, 2010
A new report by West Point prof Gregory Conti urges the military to reform its practices to protect service members from identity theft. Conti reports that service members and their families are burdened with a work environment that shows little regard for their personal information resulting in frequent theft of their identities...

Credit Bureaus Gathering More Info on Consumers to Sell to Lenders

Posted on November 07, 2010
The WSJ reports that credit bureaus and Fair Isaac are beginning to sell new types of financial information to banks for purposes of evaluating credit applications. The bureaus are offering to report on your rent and utility payments, income, home's value, and evaluate your banking activities...

FTC's ID Theft Project

Posted on October 28, 2010
The Federal Trade Commission has a site for ID theft victims that covers every type of ID theft. The site has advice for consumers on how they may protect themselves against ID theft and what to do when their ID is stolen. The FTC has also made available a guidebook for assisting identity theft victims...

Fraudsters Steal Identities of Dead Soldiers to Scam Victims

Posted on October 12, 2010
This from AOL News reports According to an Army spokesman, thieves have gone online using dead soldiers' identities to scam women into sending them money. "They look for patriotic women, and they play on their heartstrings," Christopher Grey, a spokesman for the United States Army Criminal Investigation Command, told AOL News...

California Improves its Data Security Breach Law

Posted on October 11, 2010
As we all know, businesses collect identifying information on millions of consumers, which is stored in computerized databases. From time to time, hackers get into the system and steal the personal information. Or an employee loses a laptop containing such information...

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Will Regulate Credit Bureaus

Posted on October 07, 2010
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will take over the regulatory authority over the credit reporting agency now held by the Federal Trade Commission. This is good news for consumers because the FTC's record regulating the credit bureaus is mostly too little and too late...

Prof Elizabeth Warren Appointed to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Posted on September 17, 2010
For years, no one at the federal level has done much to help ordinary consumers. Some federal agencies (the bank regulators especially) have worked for the banks against consumers. Congress (really the Democrats in Congress) approved Obama's financial reform bill (the Dodd-Frank law)...

MyFICO is the Best Site for Credit Score Information

Posted on September 09, 2010
By far the best website for credit score information is www.myfico.com. On that site, you may purchase your Equifax or Trans Union credit reports and score for $12.95. The site has information on identity theft and the factors that influence your credit score...

25% of Americans Have Credit Scores under 600

Posted on August 17, 2010
Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that 25% of Americans now have credit scores less than 600. This compares to 15% before the rescission. This means one in four consumers cannot get a mortgage loans unless they qualify for some special program...

Class Action Alleges the Aspire VISA Secured Credit Card Violates the Credit Repair Act

Posted on August 17, 2010
Today, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal issued a ruling in a case in which the plaintiffs are accusing Aspire VISA, a subprime credit card, its marketing is a violation of the Credit Repair Organization Act. That Act prohibits companies from seeking advance payments for fixing the consumer's credit...

Case before US Supreme Court May Decide Fate of Consumer Class Actions

Posted on August 10, 2010
In November of this year, the US Supreme Court hear arguments in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, a case that could decide the fate of consumer and employee class actions for years to come. The case involves the widespread practice of using standard-form contracts to ban class actions...

FTC Rules Will Put Debt Settlement Companies Out of Business

Posted on August 03, 2010
By October 2010, new FTC rules will prohibit debt settlement companies from collecting fees on the promise they will reduce or settle a consumer debts. The rules are necessary because the debt settlement companies falsely advertise they can drastically reduce consumers' debts by negotiating with the consumer's creditors...

Joe Nocera's Terrific Report on the Tyranny of Credit Scores

Posted on July 25, 2010
NY Time' columinist Joe Nocera's report on the tyranny of credit scores is right on the money. He points out that Fannie, Freddie and the banks that write mortgages depending on one thing--the applicant's credit score. Nocera gives examples of perfectly credit-worthy consumes whose credit scores are low for odd and irrelevant reasons...

Interesting Interview with Prof Warren on the New Consumer Financial Protection Agency

Posted on July 21, 2010
Prof Elizabeth Warren is a leading candidate to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency that Pres Obama signed into law today. She explains how she envisions the new agency will fulfill its duties in an interesting interview on the PBS website.

Rare Victory for Consumers--Financial Reform Bill Approved by the Senate

Posted on July 15, 2010
Today, the Senate voted to move forward with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, 60-38. The bill is now on the way to the President to be signed into law. Today's vote is a victory for consumers. The legislation came about despite the enormous opposition from the financial industry, which spent $1...

Reform Bill Addresses Problem of Inaccurate Credit Reports

Posted on July 07, 2010
An offical of the US Treasury Department has issued a statement pointing to the sections dealing with the problem of inaccurate credit reports and consumers' inability to easily get the inaccuracies removed. The official notes that credit reports are sometimes riddled with errors...

Debt Settlement Industry Rips Off Consumers

Posted on June 19, 2010
Some 250 "debt settlement companies" pray on consumers who are overwhelmed by debts. Consumers are lured by Internet and TV ads promising consumers their debt problems will cease if they just sign up. Typically, the companies require the consumer to make payments to the company while not making payments on their debts...

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