Please read below for a message from our friends at Americans for Financial Reform.
Did you know that if you have a dispute with your bank or financial company, that there’s an agency in Washington devoted to helping you resolve it?
When banks steal our money, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fights to get it back. Since opening its doors in July 2011, the Bureau has delivered nearly $12 billion in relief to some 27 million Americans defrauded by banks or financial companies. Because of this great success, the Bureau is in serious danger of being one of the first targets of the incoming Trump Administration.
One of the ways the Bureau fights for everyday Americans is through its complaint system. Whether you’re having a problem with your mortgage, credit card, or student loans, or if you’re being harassed by a debt collector, the Consumer Bureau provides you with a single place where you can go to complain: http://www.consumerfinance.
Once you submit a complaint, the Consumer Bureau forwards it to the company, which has 15 days to respond (and 60 days to resolve). If you’re not satisfied with the response, you can let the Bureau know. The Bureau has already handled more than one million complaints — it has helped many others, and may be able to help you. (If you’ve submitted a complaint to the Bureau in the past and had it resolved, can you send us an email to let us know?)
Here’s just a couple of examples of the kinds of things you can report to the Consumer Bureau’s complaint system:
- Many of us are struggling to repay our student loans. In fact, more than 42 million Americans hold over $1.3 trillion in student loan debt. Often, student loan borrowers face extra fees, inaccurate or wrong information, double charges, lost paperwork and a variety of other roadblocks. If you’re having trouble with your student loan servicer, you can file a Student Loan complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
- Have you ever been charged by your credit card company for an add-on product you never asked for? Or been charged for an overdraft fee, even though you never agreed to overdraft coverage? If so, you can file a Credit Card complaint with the Bureau.
The Consumer Bureau is dedicated to fighting for everyday Americans, and the complaint system is one of the many ways it does that.
