Consumer Action

Last updated
Consumer Action
Formation1971
Location
  • San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, OR, United States;
Exec. Dir.
Ken McEldowney
Website www.consumer-action.org

Consumer Action is a nonprofit, consumer education and advocacy center, serving consumers in the United States. Founded in 1971, the mission of Consumer Action is to help individual consumers assert their rights in the marketplace and to advance pro-consumer industry-wide change for the benefit of all. Consumer Action primarily achieves that mission by providing multi-lingual education, outreach, and advocacy services.

Contents

It has offices in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.

Mission

Consumer Action's mission is to educate and advocate for consumers, publish and disseminate free multilingual consumer educational materials and fight for laws and regulations that benefit consumers — not large businesses and corporations. [1]

Overview

Consumer Action's frequent focus is consumer credit—and the related areas of credit cards, banking and finance, money management, and pricing; as well as health, housing, scams, fraud, privacy, and more. Consumer Action is well known for its annual Credit Card Survey. [2] [3]

Consumer Action works in collaboration with numerous consumer protection, consumer advocacy organizations, and coalitions to file commentary on government legislation and briefs, such as Fair and Reasonable Fee for Credit Score Disclosure [4] and for the publication of education and informational resources, such as Consumer Privacy Guide [5] published jointly with: the Center for Democracy & Technology, Common Cause, the National Consumers League, and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

Consumer Action is a consumer protection, education, and advocacy organization, as quantified by the Urban Institute's National Center for Charitable Statistics. [6] It is often cited in consumer education campaigns [7] and interviews, like ABC's the View from the Bay. [8]

Credit Card Survey

In June 1986, in collaboration with the Consumer Federation, Consumer Action introduced the Consumer Action Credit Card Survey, an annual survey of credit cards, banks, and lending practices. The survey has become well known for highlighting hidden practices of credit card vendors that are anti-consumer.

The annual survey has highlighted predatory lending practices; and has been used to gain the attention of lawmakers. Don Oldenburg, of The Washington Post sites the highlighting of questionable lending and payment practices as one of the resources used for Congress and federal bank regulators to these questionable and costly practices.

Congress, a House bill called "The Consumer Credit Card Protection Act" would prohibit arbitrary universal default penalties. Another bill, "The Loan Shark Prevention Act," would establish a fair cap on credit card interest rates. [9]

The survey has been quoted and used local and national sources, such as Smart Money, [10] CNN Money, [11] and The New York Times . [12]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Congress.org - Consumer Action". Archived from the original on 2008-11-30. Retrieved 2009-05-14.
  2. ↑ The Consumerist, http://consumerist.com/5028980/2008-consumer-action-credit-card-survey-declares-credit-cards-really--evil
  3. ↑ Reading the fine print on credit card rates, ABC 7, http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/7_on_your_side&id=6283304 Archived 2011-06-04 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ↑ Federal Trade Commission, Proposed Rules, http://www.ftc.gov/os/comments/creditscorefees/EREG-000003.htm Archived 2009-05-13 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ↑ Consumer Privacy Guide, http://www.consumerprivacyguide.org Archived 2009-05-09 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-03-06. Retrieved 2009-05-14.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. ↑ Tom Abate, San Francisco Chronicle, 23 May 2003, S.F. consumer group tackles payday loans
  8. ↑ ABC, Avoid Being Considered a Credit Risk Archived 2011-06-04 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ↑ Oldenburg, Don, The Washington Post , March 2006, Time Out on Cash Back
  10. ↑ "Personal Finance".
  11. ↑ "Top tips: Crack the credit card code - Jan. 10, 2008".
  12. ↑ The New York Times , 20 December 1998, PRACTICAL TRAVELER; Card Users Face Increasing Fees
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