Free credit freezes and year-long fraud alerts are here, starting Sept. 21, 2018, thanks to a new federal law. Here’s what you should know.
How to safeguard your credit record and avoid security clearance problems.
The Department of Education is sending letters to veterans with severe disabilities notifying them that they may be eligible for a tax-free discharge of their outstanding student loans. Here’s what to look for if you’re eligible.
Borrowers whose student loans are forgiven due to death or disability will no longer have to pay federal income taxes on those forgiven loans. Now, tens of thousands of disabled veterans and hundreds of thousands of people living with severe disabilities are eligible for new student loan protections.
Seventy percent of new recruits pay $1,200 for GI Bill benefits they likely will not be using. Investing that money in DOD’s new Blended Retirement System (BRS) is probably a better investment.
If you have a VA home loan, then there is a good chance that you have already come into contact with offers to refinance your mortgage that appear official and may sound too good to be true. Here is what you need to know.
CFPB and our Office of Servicemembers Affairs are honored to recognize our nation’s servicemembers, veterans, and their families this Veterans Day.
When military borrowers are not able to get on track for programs like PSLF, they can end up paying tens of thousands of dollars they would otherwise not owe.
This month's 50-state report shows that servicemembers are more likely to submit complaints about some financial products compared to non-servicemembers, such as debt collection, but are less likely than non-servicemembers to submit complaints about other products, such as mortgages. Overall the report shows that servicemembers may face different problems in the financial marketplace than non-servicemembers.
Servicemembers consistently report their issues with debt collection to us. These are some of their experiences.
Servicemembers should secure their identities.
Our report highlights trends and issues reported in servicemember complaints about VA mortgage refinances. We also have direct-to-consumer tips to remember when thinking about refinancing your VA mortgage.
This Veterans Day, the CFPB would like to
recognize veterans, both within the Bureau and nationwide, to thank them for
their service.
We have some ways for you to channel your inner financial action hero and be prepared, no matter what the disaster.
Military parents can use back-to-school season as an opportunity to teach their children money management lessons. Here are some basic guidelines and resources.
Be aware of these online and local resources
available for servicemembers and veterans.
When it comes to financing an auto loan, servicemembers should be armed with knowledge about loan choices and what can be negotiated, and should take precautions when entering loan agreements for vehicles. They are often targets of misleading ads or tactics, and inaccurate explanations of benefits.
As many families are preparing to celebrate the Mother’s Day holiday, new family norms are creating the need for alternatives in financial care. Get help with our national Managing Someone Else’s Money Guides.
Harry noticed that his son Ari, a servicemember, was struggling with his car loan, so he reached out to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. His story led to our investigation into an auto loan program that we found was using deceptive marketing and lending practices to target servicemembers.
The number of complaints we receive from the military community continues to grow; from 2014-2015, complaints increased by 13 percent. For the second year in a row, debt collection, mortgages, and credit reporting were the top three complaint categories for the military community. Debt collection—by a large margin—was the top complaint category, comprising nearly half of our military complaints.
We care deeply about protecting veterans and their families in the consumer financial marketplace, and we are especially proud to have more than 180 veterans in our ranks throughout various divisions of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
In the real world, many servicemembers who protect our country run into financial trouble or face difficult financial decisions, but may not be aware of consumer protections that are available to them. Unfortunately, some servicemembers may be walking around in a financial fog, unprepared for dangerous threats to their financial well-being.
Being away and mission-focused means you won’t be able to regularly check your accounts or credit report, so you may be at increased risk for fraud or identity theft. Today, we’re releasing our Fraud Alert Fact Sheet, which provides you with the information you need to know about getting protective alerts inserted into your credit reports when you’re away.
Americans with disabilities disproportionately live in poverty; are more than twice as likely to use nonbank financial services such as payday loans and check cashing; and 80 percent have no emergency savings to absorb a financial shock. Americans with disabilities, like all consumers, have the right to fair treatment in the financial marketplace and access to tools that can help them improve their financial lives.
