Issue Spotlight: Home Equity Contracts: Market Overview
With home equity “investment” contracts (HEIs), homeowners get cash up front in exchange for a repayment later. But HEIs can be risky.
Reports
Our reports focus on a wide range of topics including how consumers interact with financial products and services, trends in specific markets such as debt collection and credit cards, and the experiences of selected populations such as servicemembers, older Americans, and traditionally underserved consumers. Review our reports and analyses to help inform your decisions, policies, and practices.
Debt Burdens Among Credit-Linked Consumers in the United States
Using consumer credit record data, CFPB researchers document how often consumers share credit with likely-household members, what types of credit they share, and what we might miss by focusing solely on individuals.
Issue Spotlight: Social Security Offsets and Defaulted Student Loans
Forced collection of Social Security benefits increasingly pushes borrowers into poverty and hardship, undermining the purpose of the Social Security program.
Issue Spotlight: The High Cost of Retail Credit Cards
Retail credit cards, which tend to be more accessible to consumers with lower credit scores, can pose heightened risk for consumer harm.
Issue Spotlight: Homeowners face problems with mortgage companies after divorce or death of a loved one
Some people become homeowners following divorce or the death of a spouse. CFPB rules and federal housing program guidelines require mortgage servicers to help these homeowners in a timely way. CFPB complaints suggest that some mortgage servicers are making it difficult for surviving spouses and other homeowners to get the help they need.
Issue Spotlight: Cash-back Fees
The CFPB examines consumer risks related to fees on cash-back transactions at retail point of sale, finding that Kroger Co, Dollar General, Dollar Tree, and Family Dollar, charge fees for small amounts while other sampled retailers do not.
Issue Spotlight: Solar Financing
Overview of the marketplace for financing residential solar panels and the consumer risks posed by solar-specific loans.
Issue Spotlight: Costs of Electronic Payments in K-12 Schools
K-12 schools are increasingly offering families the option to pay school-related expenses online via third-party payment processors, presenting new costs and challenges for users.
Banking in video games and virtual worlds
Gaming marketplaces increasingly incorporate banking and payment systems. Learn how the CFPB is monitoring the use of virtual currencies in online games.
Issue Spotlight: Federal Student Loan Return to Repayment
Summarizes initial observations from CFPB’s on-going effort to monitor the return to repayment on federal student loans for risks to consumers.
Big Tech's Role in Contactless Payments: Analysis of Mobile Device Operating Systems and Tap-to-Pay Practices
This issue spotlight is part of the CFPB’s broader effort to monitor the rapidly evolving consumer payments industry, including the expansion of Big Tech companies into this sphere.
Issue Spotlight: Consumer risks posed by employer-driven debt
This issue spotlight describes the risks workers and consumers face when they become indebted to the employer or the employer’s affiliate as a condition of employment.
Issue Spotlight: Analysis of Deposit Insurance Coverage on Funds Stored Through Payment Apps
Payment apps that allow consumers and businesses to quickly send and send money also often provide the ability for users to store those funds. Funds stored on these platforms often lack deposit insurance coverage and are at risk of loss in the event of financial distress or failure of the entity operating the payment platform.
Issue Spotlight: Medical Billing and Collections Among Older Americans
Medical billing practices can leave people 65 and older with inaccurate bills and attempts to collect amounts they do not owe.
Issue Spotlight: Public Benefits Delivery & Consumer Protection
This Issue Spotlight examines challenges faced and consumer complaints made by those who receive public benefits when getting the funds through financial products or services.
Issue Spotlight: Public Benefits Delivery & Consumer Protection
Rewards programs that promise consumers financial incentives for spending are a central feature of most consumer credit cards and dominate many issuers’ marketing efforts.
Issue Spotlight: Nursing Home Debt Collection
An analysis of the risks that nursing home residents and their caregivers face by assessing consumer complaints, nursing home admission contracts, and debt collection lawsuits.
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