Prepaid Debit Cards that Allow you to Pay Bills It’s an irresistible headline. “Why a guy making $100,000 a year can’t get a bank account,” was the provocative title to a recent intriguing story by Danielle Douglas in The Washington Post. In it, Douglas describes how a Kansas City software engineer, Zikomo Fields, pulls in… Continue reading Prepaid Debit Cards that Allow you to Pay Bills (Like a Checking Account)
Author: Chris Warren
Suze Orman Prepaid Card Discontinued June 30
That’s because Orman’s Approved Card, a partnership with Bancorp Bank that was released in early 2012, is suspending operations on July 1. According to a story in The New York Times, holders of the Approved Card recently received a letter from Bancorp Bank urging them to spend whatever money remained in their accounts – anything not spent would be refunded to them.
Consumer Financial Protection Report: Mishandling Credit Report Errors, Hassling Consumers and More
Harassing phone calls. Credit report errors. Payday loan company employees showing up at a customer’s workplace demanding money. These are just some of the more troubling findings in a recent report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which was set up in the wake of the financial meltdown to police financial products and services.… Continue reading Consumer Financial Protection Report: Mishandling Credit Report Errors, Hassling Consumers and More
Visa Attacks Prepaid Fee Confusion
It’s getting harder and harder for prepaid card issuers to be sneaky about their fees. Earlier this year the Pew Charitable Trusts issued a report detailing the lack of uniformity when it comes to prepaid fee disclosures and proposed a model disclosure box to make it easy for consumers to compare the fees associated with… Continue reading Visa Attacks Prepaid Fee Confusion
Accenture survey: Banks Face Big Threat
The Accenture survey, which was based on feedback from around 4,000 retail banking customers in the US and Canada, found that evolving technologies and changing consumer attitudes pose real dilemmas to traditional banks. Accenture found that although almost 40 percent of US customers have been with their current bank for a decade or more, a host of factors shows that now is not the time for banks to assume their customers aren’t looking for better options.
Consumer Advocates: Credit CARD Act Saves $12.6 Billion Annually
“The CARD Act has been hugely successful in banning the biggest unfair credit card gotchas like retroactive interest rate hikes and excessive penalty fees,” says Linda Sherry, Director of National Priorities at Consumer Action. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has calculated that the law saves consumers $4 billion per year in fees alone, while another estimate puts the total savings from banned interest charges and fees closer to $13 billion each year.