You have the right to free, unbiased financial information
If you are confused and lost when you are shopping for a mortgage or when you are figuring out how to pay for college, you are not alone. If you wish you had a financial expert to turn to for trustworthy guidance about paying off debts, or opening a credit card, you are not alone.
If you believe you have the right to free, unbiased financial information, you are not alone – because at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, we agree.
It’s our job to provide you with reliable, trustworthy information about the consumer financial marketplace. So, in the past four years we’ve worked hard creating online tools to inform your financial decisions that are truly free – no charges, no ads, no referral fees.
Three financial tools you can trust
Owning a Home helps you understand one of the most important financial decisions you’re likely to make: getting a mortgage. It explains the complex options you have when shopping for a mortgage loan, for example whether to consider a fixed rate or an adjustable rate. It lets you play around with different factors to see how they affect interest rates. You can also find an easy to use checklist for the closing process that will prepare you to sign on the dotted line.
Paying for College helps students, students-to-be, and their parents compare financial aid packages. For people paying off student loans, Repay Student Debt, a part of the tool, helps you understand your options for repayment, gives you resources to avoid missing payments, and offers helpful resources if you’ve defaulted on your loan. You’ll find a sample letter you can send to student loan servicers (the companies that send you a bill each month), and tips on how to communicate with debt collectors.
In Ask CFPB, you’ll find expert answers to more than 1,000 questions about financial products and services including student loans, credit cards, mortgages, credit scores, credit reporting, getting out of debt, and more. Over four million people have found reliable and unbiased answers to common questions, and we’re adding and improving questions all the time thanks to your feedback. You can rate each Ask CFPB question, letting us know if the answer was helpful, too long, incorrect or confusing. You can also submit questions you think would be good additions to the collection.
We will continue to add more features to our tools, create new tools for other major financial decisions, and make sure our resources stay up-to-date as we and other government agencies update rules. Try out our tools, send us your feedback, and share them with your friends.
When key financial decisions arise in your life, you are not alone. You can trust that our tools and resources will provide you with accurate, unbiased information so you can make the financial decisions you believe are best for you and your family.