On Thursday, September 18, I attended a field hearing the CFPB held in Indianapolis on auto finance. I also was invited to a private community roundtable meeting with Director Cordray prior to the hearing. I must say that I was extremely encouraged. I believe Director Cordray and the CFPB staff are doing their best to look out for and protect the interests of consumers. There is no doubt they face significant hurdles and opposition. And I’m sure there will be times where we, as consumer advocates, will be disappointed with the actions or inaction of the CFPB. But I left the meeting with Director Cordray and his staff with the belief that the CFPB truly is attempting to do what its name says: protect consumers’ financial interests from unfair business practices. What a breath of fresh air!
The other thing I learned of note is that the CFPB actively works to resolve consumer complaints and THEY WANT CONSUMERS TO FILE COMPLAINTS WITH THEM. That was news to me. In Indiana, the consumers I speak with often file complaints with the Better Business Bureau and the Attorney General’s Office. These entities will take the complaint and then solicit a response from the business, but if the business maintains they did nothing wrong the consumer will generally get a letter saying “we’ve done all we can, to pursue this further you may need to consult an attorney.” But my understanding is that the CFPB will, when it believes the consumer has been treated unfairly, push the business to correct the situation. I haven’t gone through the process personally, nor have I spoken with any consumer who has (as of the time of this writing), but I am anxious to see if it really works like that. If so, this will be a tremendous resource for consumers in Indiana and throughout the United States.
Complaints can be submitted at http://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/ or by calling 855-411-2372. They are even set up to take complaints over the telephone in over 175 different languages!
Finally, I want to conclude with a brief word of caution. If you believe you have a significant claim worthy of a lawsuit, I would encourage you to speak with an attorney before taking any action yourself (like filing a CFPB complaint). The attorney can advise you concerning what actions to take and how to take them so that you don’t do anything to compromise a potential claim that you might have.