Prepaid Debit Card Reviews, Complaints, Etc

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  • Here’s how financial coaching can help you meet your money goals – saving, building credit and more

    Here’s how financial coaching can help you meet your money goals – saving, building credit and more

    We talked to people across the country about financial well-being and what it means to them. Many people told us that financial well-being means:

    • Feeling in control of day-to-day finances.

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    • Having a safety net to help stop a financial shock from turning into a long-lasting setback, and
    • Staying on track to meet financial goals while also having the freedom to enjoy life, which means different things to different people. For some that means taking a vacation, for others it’s about going out to eat, and for others it could mean working less to spend more time with family.

    At the CFPB, we believe all consumers have the right to achieve greater financial wellbeing for themselves and their families. That’s why we’ve studied a promising approach to financial education: financial coaching.

    How financial coaching helps consumers

    Earlier this week, the Urban Institute released a study we commissioned, which found that financial coaching can help increase financial well-being.

    The study analyzed two different coaching programs serving low and moderate-income consumers – Branches, a faith-based social services organization in Miami and the Financial Clinic, a non-profit financial services organization in New York City. Financial coaching is customized to meet each person’s goals, and the study found that coaches can help people achieve financial outcomes that are most relevant to their own situation. The study showed that on average, people offered access to financial coaching:

    • Increased savings by almost $ 1,200 in New York City
    • Reduced debt by over $ 10,000 in Miami
    • Increased credit scores by 21 points in New York City
    • Were more likely to pay bills on time
    • Reported an increased sense of confidence in their finances and reduced feelings of financial stress

    Check out the study here to learn more about these financial coaching programs and how they serve consumers.

    Here’s how coaching can help you meet your financial goals graphic

    So, what does a financial coach do?

    Financial coaches can help you address concerns by assisting you in defining your own personal financial goals as well as the steps you need to take to meet your goals. Financial coaches usually meet with clients one-on-one, and can help you:

    • Determine and define your financial goals
    • Develop concrete plans to meet those goals
    • Provide support over time as you work toward your goals

    Our financial coaching initiative

    The CFPB has a financial coaching initiative that provides guidance to recently-transitioned veterans and vulnerable families in places where they’re already going for assistance. We’ve joined forces with the Department of Labor (DOL) and more than two dozen non-profit social-services providers to place certified coaches in DOL American Job Centers and community-centered non-profits across the country.

    This article by Janneke Ratcliffe was distributed by the Personal Finance Syndication Network.

    Personal Finance Syndication Network


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  • RushCard Glitch Locks Out Thousands of Prepaid Card Customers from Accounts and Prompts Investigation

    RushCard Glitch Locks Out Thousands of Prepaid Card Customers from Accounts and Prompts Investigation


    Hundreds of thousands of Americans are still without access to their paychecks after a glitch struck RushCard, Russell Simmons’ prepaid debit card company.





    According to an article in Rolling Stone, accountholders, many of whom are low-income and lack access to other banks, found that they had lost access to their accounts nearly two weeks ago. Although the company has assured customers that they are working around the clock to fix the error, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has launched an investigation into the organization.  Many customers have been without access to their funds since October 12th.

    “It is outrageous that consumers have not had usage of their money for more than a week,” bureau officials said in a statement.

    They are currently working with other agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in a joint effort to hold those responsible for this problem accountable.

    According to the Wall Street Journal, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced the investigation on Friday. A director with the bureau, Richard Cordray, said they’d reached out to RushCard CEO, Rick Savard, spoke of the “cascading financial effects of consumers not having access to their funds for more than a week.”

    Simmons issued a statement reassuring customers that they were working hard to correct the problem and doing everything they could do.  Savard blamed the glitch on transferring to a new processing system.  To aid in customer communications, he added that command centers have been set up to help field customer complaints.

    As of right now, RushCard has promised that it would waive the $1 fee that clients incur each time they use their card through Feb. 2016, and business executives have said that users will receive additional compensation for their struggles.

    “Very soon, RushCard will be making a significant announcement on how we plan to make this right with our customers who were severely inconvenienced, and in some cases, suffered hardships,” Savard stated.

  • Helping Financial Caregivers in Every State

    Helping Financial Caregivers in Every State

     

    Helping financial caregivers in every state

    Millions of Americans are managing money or property for a family member or friend who is unable to pay bills or make financial decisions. We’ve heard from these financial caregivers about how tough it can be.

    Kristin in Virginia had to take over financial management for her 35-year-old brother when he suffered a traumatic brain injury in a devastating car wreck. “Taking over financial caregiving for my brother was especially challenging when coupled with the physical and emotional trauma of his accident. Even though I’m a financially savvy individual, I had no idea where to get help…. Unfortunately, there was no guide, no checklist, or a book of best practices to refer to.”

    In Florida, Hector stepped in to help his elderly mother after a niece stole nearly $ 100,000 from her. Despite his own severe disability, he works every day to make sure her nursing home bills are paid and her accounts are in order. “When you have to take care of someone else’s finances, you feel more responsible for their affairs than you do for your own. It’s overwhelming.”

    Managing Someone Else’s Money

    We listened to consumers about the need for easy-to-understand tools to help manage a loved one’s money. Two years ago we released the Managing Someone Else’s Money guides for financial caregivers all over the country, and we’ve distributed over 600,000 printed copies so far. The guides are for:

    • Agents under a power of attorney
    • Court-appointed guardians of property and conservators
    • Trustees
    • Government-benefit fiduciaries (Social Security representative payees and VA fiduciaries).

    The guides help financial caregivers in three ways: they walk them through their duties, they tell them about protecting their loved ones from financial exploitation and scams, and they tell them where to go for help.

    But, because people’s powers and duties overseeing another person’s finances vary from state to state, we’ve learned that people need more than a one-size-fits-all guide. That’s why we are releasing specially adapted guides for six states. We’ve already launched guides for Florida and Virginia, and soon will release guides to help financial caregivers in Arizona, Georgia, Illinois and Oregon.

    But, what about the other 44 states and the territories?

    Today we are releasing new tools to help experts in other states adapt the CFPB’s guides. These tips and templates are meant for key state professionals to develop guides for states that don’t have them. (If you are wondering who a key state professional is, check out tip 2, in the tips document.) Our tips and templates will make it easy for experts to create state guides with specific information that financial caregivers need to know. The tips tool explains how to adapt the guides in ten easy steps. The templates highlight the parts of our guides where experts can add information about your state’s laws, practices and resources.

    The tips and templates are available for download on consumerfinance.gov/managing-someone-elses-money . If you would like free print copies of the tips document, you can order single copies or place bulk orders .

    Let’s work together to meet the needs of people like Kristin and Hector in your community.

    This article by Naomi Karp was distributed by the Personal Finance Syndication Network.


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    Personal Finance Syndication Network

    [box_success]We want to hear from you!
    What do you think? Are you doing any financial caregiving duties currently, or do you foresee this in the next few years? Wherever you are in status on this issue, we would love to hear your comments below.
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  • Struggling to Keep Up with Student Loan Repayment

    Struggling to Keep Up with Student Loan Repayment

    We’ve all heard the stories. Whether from our friends, colleagues, adult children, or through our own experiences, we know that student loan debt is taking a huge toll on students and graduates across the country. With the total volume of outstanding student debt amounting to well over a trillion dollars, we’ve heard stories of its impact on home buying, saving, the start of new businesses, new families, and more.

    This summer, we had the pleasure of meeting Dani who shared her story with us. Her story was similar to many of the stories we receive on student debt. Dani, who graduated with a degree in elementary education, wasn’t making a lot of money. She was struggling to make ends meet and pay down her student loans. She was living in a family member’s basement located over an hour away from her job, driving a car in desperate need of repair, and trying to balance the cost of groceries against her student loan payments. At one point, she could not pay her student loans and received threatening calls as a result.

    “I can’t even tell you the number of times I’ve cried over my finances… It’s not like I’m going out and saying, ’Oh, I don’t have to pay those.’ I want to, and it’s really hard to deal with not being able to.”

    Dani was on a one-year reduced payment plan, but it was about to expire. She knew that her income still wasn’t enough to manage a full student loan payment so, before the reduced payment plan expired, she contacted her student loan servicer to find out what steps she needed to take to stay on the plan. Although they assured her that she’d be able to do so, her request to extend the plan was eventually denied. Dani continued to try to work with her student loan servicer but she was getting nowhere.

    “I needed help. I contacted the CFPB because I really needed someone else on my side. There’s nothing that I was doing with this private student loan servicer that was changing anything, and I was stuck in a position that felt hopeless…”

    The loan servicer reviewed her account and determined she was indeed eligible to stay on the reduced payment plan for another year. By reaching out to the CFPB, Dani was able to take charge of her student loan debt.

    “It’s such a relief to be able to not have to worry about if I’ll have money for gas to get to work; or, not have to worry about whether or not I’ll have something to eat that week; or being able to afford a place to live.”

    We’re glad that Dani got the help she needed by reaching out to the CFPB. Whether you’re struggling with student loans or planning how you’ll pay for college, we have tools to help you. You have the right to take charge of your student loan debt, so let us help you along the way.

    To learn more about our recent work to help student loan borrowers, read our report on Student Loan Servicing.

    Check out more stories from people like you, visit our Paying for College tool, and submit a complaint if you’re having a problem with your student loan.

    This article by Ashley Gordon was distributed by the Personal Finance Syndication Network.


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    Personal Finance Syndication Network

  • New signs of trouble for student loan borrowers

    Earlier this year, we asked you to share your stories about student debt stress. More than 30,000 of you responded, telling us that student loan servicers (the companies that send you a bill each month) can make it harder to manage your loans and may contribute to our nation’s growing student loan default problem.

    Last week, we published a report based on your stories and issued a call for industrywide reforms to protect consumers.

    Building on this work, today, we released our annual report on student loan complaints , taking a closer look at the problems experienced by certain student loan borrowers. We are particularly concerned about repayment problems facing those with older federal student loans that were made by banks and other private lenders. We found that servicing issues may make repaying student debt even harder for this group of borrowers, in particular.

    Federal student loan borrowers may have loans made directly by the Department of Education (Direct Loans) or loans made by a private lender. Most federal student loans were made by private lenders until 2010 when the program (known as the Federal Family Education Loan Program or FFELP) was ended. These loans were once the most common way to borrow for college and borrowers with these loans still make up nearly a third of all student loan borrowers— owing more than $ 370 billion in outstanding debt.

    Today’s report found that federal student loans made by private lenders may have a greater rate of borrowers in default and delinquency than the broader student loan market. This raises concerns about whether distressed borrowers with these loans are getting adequate information on repayment options from their servicers.

    In fact, while the CFPB estimates that more than one-in-four student loan borrowers are delinquent or in default market-wide, today’s report reveals that at least 30 percent of FFELP borrowers—more than five million in total— are behind on their loans or are already in default. As one FFELP borrower told us:

    “I have a loan with [servicer] and I have not been given any help dealing with my payment options. I have filled out applications for an [income-based repayment plan] and forbearance. Customer service is constantly giving me false information and not helping me to get my payments lowered…Please, help me. I am trying hard not to allow my loans to go into default. I am not trying to ignore my loans but how can I pay a $ 2,000 monthly payment. They are not helping me to resolve this payment to a payment that I can afford.”

    Today’s report also notes:

    • Borrowers with federal loans made by private lenders report that they run into roadblocks when trying to access income-driven repayment plans, despite the right under federal law to do so. Borrowers with these loans generally have a right to enroll in payment plans that set their monthly payment based on their income. The complaints we received show that some student loan borrowers had trouble getting accurate information, having paperwork processed on time and staying on track once they were able to enroll. These problems can increase costs for borrowers and may contribute to driving some borrowers into default.
    • More than 1-in-5 of these borrowers are past-due or are not making payments, but are not yet in default. We also asked some of the largest student loan companies to share information about how their customers with these loans are doing. We looked at a sample of this data and found that more than 12 percent of these borrowers are behind and more than 10 percent are in forbearance (asking their servicer to let them take a break from making payments)—potentially signs of significant distress. We also know that more than four million borrowers with these loans are already in default, based on data published by the Department of Education.
    • Ninety-five percent of these borrowers are not enrolled in income-driven repayment plans. For the first time, today’s report sheds light on how many of these borrowers are enrolled in income-driven repayment plans. We found that, despite the widespread availability of these plans, the overwhelming majority of borrowers in our sample were not enrolled. This is particularly concerning given that borrowers in the standard monthly payment plan default on their loans at nearly five times the rate of borrowers who enrolled in income-based repayment, by one recent estimate.

    Continuing signs of student debt stress among borrowers with federal loans made by private lenders is cause for concern. There remain many unanswered questions about how these borrowers fare over time, in part because there is very little public information available about the performance of federal loans made by private lenders.

    Today’s report also calls for better information about the entire student loan market, including more details about delinquencies, defaults, and how borrowers in income-driven payment plans fare over time. It also shows why last week’s call to establish clear and consistent industry-wide standards is an important part of the Bureau’s ongoing work to help make sure student loan borrowers are treated fairly.

    If you have questions about repaying your student loans, check out our Repay Student Debt feature of Paying for College to find out how you can tackle your student loan debt.

    If you have a problem with your student loan, you can submit a complaint online or call us at (855) 411-2372.


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    This article by Seth Frotman was distributed by the Personal Finance Syndication Network.

    Personal Finance Syndication Network

  • What is an ACH?

    What is an ACH?

    An ACH is an electronic fund transfer made between banks and credit unions across what is called the Automated Clearing House network.

    ACH is used for all kinds of fund transfer transactions, including direct deposit of paychecks and monthly debits for routine payments. Merchants often enable consumers to pay bills via ACH by providing an account number and bank routing number. A number of online payment services also conduct transactions via ACH, including most banks and credit unions’ online bill payment services.

    While many ACH payments clear quickly, because of the way in which an ACH is processed and precautions against fraud and money laundering, transactions can sometimes take several days to complete.

    ACH transactions can trigger a return notification if there are insufficient funds in the account.

    ,An ACH is an electronic fund transfer made between banks and credit unions across what is called the Automated Clearing House network. ACH is used for all kinds of fund transfer transactions, including direct deposit of paychecks and monthly debits for routine payments. Merchants often enable consumers to pay bills via ACH by providing an account number and bank routing number. A number of online payment services also conduct transactions via ACH, including most banks and credit union

    This article by the CFPB was distributed by the Personal Finance Syndication Network.


    Personal Finance Syndication Network

Prepaid Debit Card Reviews, Complaints, Etc