Consumer Finance Report

Back to Basics, Continued—Firm or Guaranteed Offers of Credit and Notices

March 15, 2023

United States: The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) governs offering credit to consumers who have not applied for credit.

Back to Basics, Continued—Revisiting Prepayment and Refinancing

March 8, 2023

United States: When a consumer loan is prepaid by cash or a refinancing of the debt, there arises the question of whether there are any “prepaid” finance charge or other fees that are due to be refunded to the debtor. More often than not, there are.

Back to Basics, Continued—Duty to Mitigate Damages; a Return to Sanity?

March 1, 2023

United States: Last week I wrote about the consequences of bankruptcy debtor’s counsel not acting in good faith. See Back to Basics, Continued—Bankruptcy and the Automatic Stay. One of the related duties to acting in good faith, is the obligation to mitigate one’s damages.

Back to Basics, Continued—Bankruptcy and the Automatic Stay

February 22, 2023

United States: My recent blog dealing with violation of the automatic stay has drawn some responses. See Back to Basics, Continued—Establishing the Creditor’s Notice Address for Notice of Bankruptcy Filing. Nothing seems to get a creditor’s attention more than a discussion of how to potentially avoid the disastrous implications of violating the Automatic Stay in a consumer’s Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

Back to Basics, Continued—the Purchase Money Security Interest Meets the U.S. Bankruptcy Code!

February 15, 2023

United States: Traditionally, lenders and credit sellers have felt pretty good about their position as a “secured creditor” in the bankruptcy context, particularly when their security interest in the consumer/debtor’s collateral is a purchase money security interest. Recall that a purchase money security interest (PMSI) is a status that arises by operation of law.

Back to Basics, Continued—Cyber Security

February 8, 2023

United States: I have written about Cyber Security under other names several times in the past. See Data Security, Data Breach Notification, Again and Data Breach Notification. I write again about this subject as it continues to be on the top of the list of concerns of our state and federal regulators.

Back to Basics, Continued—Establishing the Creditor’s Notice Address for Notice of Bankruptcy Filing

February 1, 2023

United States: One of the more troubling aspects of running a consumer financial services company concerns acting upon notice of a customer’s bankruptcy filing. Too often, the notice never shows up at the creditor’s office—and meanwhile, the creditor’s CSRs have continued their collection efforts against a debtor who has filed for bankruptcy.

Back to Basics, Continued—Identity Theft Continues to Cause Great Harm

January 25, 2023

United States: The CFPB reports that identity theft is still a vexing problem for consumers.

Back to Basics, Continued—The Interplay Between the Gramm, Leach, Bliley Act Privacy Policy and the Privacy Notice—No, they are not the same thing!

January 18, 2023

United States: Too many creditors think that utilizing the Privacy Notice form of Regulation P is all there is to compliance with the Gramm, Leach, Bliley Act (Act). Regrettably, that is not the case.

Back to Basics, Continued—GAP Waivers and GAP Insurance, Revisited

January 11, 2023

United States: Questions continue to come to me about the distinction between Guaranteed Asset Protection (GAP) Waivers and Guaranteed Asset Protection (GAP) Insurance.