Thanks to President Obama and Senator Warren, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is paying off. ----- Federal regulators reached a settlement last week with the owners of two high-priced lenders over what they alleged were illegal debt collection practices against service members. The Virginia-based companies were featured in a ProPublica story last summer. The action by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which enforces federal consumer laws, is the latest move by regulators and the Department of Defense to curb predatory practices by companies that target members of the armed forces around the country. In July, ProPublica published an investigation of USA Discounters, a retailer with stores outside each of the country’s 11 largest military bases. The story, which was also published in the Washington Post, detailed how the company courted service members by guaranteeing them credit on marked-up appliances and electronics. If they fell behind on their payments, USA Discounters often sued them, by the thousands, in Virginia, regardless of where they had made their purchases. After winning judgments, the company then frequently seized funds from debtors’ pay or bank accounts.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 22:47:19 +0000
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