The CFPB issued a consent order\u00a0that showed over 1.4 million consumers were\u00a0deceived by the marketing of two credit card payment protection programs.\u00a0These products, called “Credit Protection Plus” and “Credit Protection\u00a0Deluxe,” allowed customers to request the bank cancel some credit card debt\u00a0in the event of certain hardships like disability and involuntary\u00a0unemployment, or certain life events such as retirement or entering college.\u00a0 The CFPB found that the telemarketing practices used in selling these\u00a0products were misleading. This took place between 2010 and 2012.<\/p>\n
Bank of America must provide approximately $268 million in refunds to the\u00a0more than 1.4 million customers affected by these deceptive marketing\u00a0practices.<\/p>\n
In addition, Bank of America enrolled consumers in programs to monitor their\u00a0credit and alert them to potentially fraudulent activity. These programs\u00a0were known as “Privacy Guard,” “Privacy Source,” and “Privacy Assist.” The\u00a0bank began charging customers fees and interest without or before they\u00a0received proper authorization from consumers.<\/p>\n
Bank of America must pay $459 million to roughly 1.9 million customer\u00a0accounts, representing approximately 1.5 million consumers who enrolled in\u00a0the credit monitoring products and were charged while the bank did not\u00a0perform all of the promised services.<\/p>\n
“We have consistently warned companies about illegal practices related to\u00a0credit card add-on products,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. \u00a0\u00a0“Bank of America both deceived consumers and unfairly billed\u00a0consumers for services not performed. We will not tolerate such practices\u00a0and will continue to be vigilant in our pursuit of companies who wrong\u00a0consumers in this market.”<\/p>\n
Federal regulators have been cracking down on deceptive credit card practices and marketing from many of the biggest card issuers in the United States in recent years.<\/p>\n
JP Morgan Chase, Discover, Capital One and American Express have also been recently fined for deceptive ad-ons.<\/p>\n
Bank of America was ordered by the Consumer Financial Protection\u00a0Bureau to refund $727 million to consumers who were deceived by the bank’s\u00a0marketing of credit card payment protection programs and others who were\u00a0charged for credit monitoring services they never fully authorized. … Continue reading ![\"Getting](\"http:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Getting-Out-of-the-Credit-Card-Mess-300x195.jpg\")
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