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93 Million Prepaid Cardholders are Unprotected
By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist When it comes to financial services, many consumers are surprised by the range of fees attached to their transactions. From mortgages to checking accounts, credit...
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The Push to Eliminate Predatory Lending
By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist In the aftermath of a letter signed by 500 consumer advocates from all 50 states, an unprecedented push for reining in abusive small-dollar, high-cost loans has...
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Credit Arbitration Clauses Favor Corporations
By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist Although arbitration is often associated with labor unions, millions of consumers are also affected by it and don’t even know it. Often consumers find the...
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Holding the Loretta Lynch Nomination Hostage
By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist It is ironic that April is Fair Housing Month and the U.S. Senate has yet to schedule a vote on the nomination of the first Black woman to become the nation’s...
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Corinthian Colleges Fined $30 Million
By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist Financially-troubled Corinthian Colleges, once one of the nation’s largest for-profit colleges, has a new financial hurdle: a $30 million fine. An April 14 order...
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Green Tree Must Pay $63 Million for Mistreating Borrowers
By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist Consumers harmed by Green Tree Servicing, LLC, a major mortgage servicer, won an important victory. Joint enforcement actions by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)...
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Black Families Must Focus on Asset Building
By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist As the wealthy few continue to prosper, the rest of the nation is caught in a financial tug-of-war between stagnant wages and a rising cost of living. In...
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Financial Predators Still Target Active Duty Military
By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist The men and women who wear our nation’s uniform are expected to defend our nation at home and abroad. Yet, when it comes to financial services, service members are...
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‘Credit Invisible’ Blacks and Latinos
By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist When it comes to consumer finance, traditional lenders usually review credit scores before reaching a decision. In general, the higher a consumer’s credit score is,...
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Feds and States Successfully Team up to Prosecute Housing Bias
By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist Three recent and separate enforcement actions involving federal and state agencies together prove how coordinated efforts against housing and credit discrimination...
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Abusive Lending Practices Target People of Color
By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist Each year the many forms and products of predatory lending drain at minimum hundreds of billions of dollars from the nation’s economy and communities across the...
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Supreme Court Preserves Key Fair Housing Tool
By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist A long-awaited decision by the United States Supreme Court led to a June 25 ruling that preserves the usage of “disparate impact,” an important legal principle...
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Congress Urges Stronger Actions Against Payday Loan Vendors
By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will provide $32 million in relief to consumers who were caught in a maze of charges and fees designed to trap them in payday...
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Car Dealers Charge Exorbitant Interest Rates
By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist Car lending is on the rise, and rising with it is a hidden, unfair, abusive and discriminatory practice: car dealer interest rate markups. Surveys show that at...
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Despite Stellar Record, CFPB Remains Under Attack
By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist In everyday life, birthdays and anniversaries of many sorts are observed and celebrated. When it comes to consumer finance, there are two more anniversaries worth...
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Pitfalls to Avoid When Making a Student Loan
By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist If you are a college student, a recent college graduate or even a college drop-out, student loan debt is not only likely, but probable. Among Black families, more...
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Debt Can Help or Hurt Wealth Building
By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist Money and credit are two items that affect nearly everyone. We earn, spend and sometimes save money. But it seems nearly inevitable that the need for credit arises...
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Campaign to Rollback Consumer Protection in Auto Financing
By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist When it comes to public policy, most citizens tend to think in terms of what government can accomplish on their behalf. Multiple civil rights laws and the...
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More Black Denials than Access to Mortgages
By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist This week in Houston, the nation’s oldest minority professional real estate trade association held its 68th annual convention. Founded in July 1947, the National...
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A Call for Fair and Equal Access to Financial Services
By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist On August 1, the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization began a journey that will cover 860 miles and last 40 days and 40 nights. Once completed,...
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