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 GoodB.org is the community service arm of Good Business International—Better Business for a Better World. (Inspired by Google.org model) GoodB.org is privately supported by parent company Good Business International, Inc. (GoodB). Its purpose is to represent non-biased consumer interests.
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 College Credit
College students may be happy or sad about the new credit card laws. The new law that goes into effect February 22, 2010 makes it harder for anyone under 21 years old to get a credit card.
Chicago Tribune reports “the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 “which Congress passed last year to curb abusive card practices, restricts issuers from raising interest rates and imposing certain fees.
Lenders had a swell time these past few decades swarming students on college campuses or on Spring Break in beach resorts hawking credit. The plan was for lenders to grab easy profits knowing that students would treat credit cards like ATM cards and parents would (more often than not) bail them out of debt. Well, those days are over!
College kids under 21 now have to get mom, dad or another qualified co-signer over 21 years old to sign off on the card. Or they can prove they have enough income to qualify, thus taking the burden off parents. Full-time students must have $2,000 yearly income to qualify for a Discover Card, for example. Part-time students must earn $15,000 minimum annually in order to qualify by income.
“Gone are the days when banks handed out credit card applications (and free T-shirts) on campus. By law, issuers can no longer market on campus or at school-sponsored events.”
In the wake of a more fiscally responsible America, that sounds like a good thing, even if students are not happy about it. In the past two decades, access to credit among college students and ordinary consumers has increased to monumental proportions. America is on a much-needed consumer credit diet.
White House Economist Larry Summers says new credit card restrictions are intended “to stop the marketing of credit in ways that addicts people to it.”
Starting with underage college students, apparently now is a good time to go cold-turkey and kick the habit before it starts.
Note from Editor:
Two years before the credit card reforms were passed and over one year before the credit markets collapsed, Business Week published a fascinating series by Princeton Grad Jessica Silver-Greenberg exposing the predatory college student credit industry. In light of the credit crisis the information is even more astonishing now than it was then. Jessica reports on “aggressive on-campus marketing by credit card companies” in an eye opening expose entitled, “Majoring in Credit Card Debt” published on September 4, 2007.
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 Seattle Area Consumer Help
From Conscious Talk Radio Show
“Home foreclosures in Washington (State) are epidemic,” according to Washington State Bar Association President Mark Johnson. (excerpted from June 18, 2009, Seattlepi.com / see below).
The following list of organizations offers options and advice to consumers and homeowners seeking legal assistance:
Seattle: Full Day Foreclosure Prevention Workshop. July 24, 2009.
Cleveland High School, 5511 15th. Ave. So.
Information for Free Legal Help to Prevent Foreclosure in Washington State:
Article in Seattle Post-Intelligencer
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/407329_foreclosure18.html
Washington State Bar Association
has launched a new effort called the "Home Foreclosure Legal Aid Project" to assist troubled homeowners with legal advice. To date, 270 Washington State lawyers have volunteered their time for distressed homeowners.
http://www.mywsba.org/default.aspx?tabid=161
Washington State Department of Financial Institutions
offers free foreclosure counseling. 877-894-HOME(4663). Before you call a foreclosure counselor agency recommends you read this info: http://www.dfi.wa.gov/consumers/education/foreclosure/before_you_call.pdf
Northwest Justice Project
is a not-for-profit statewide organization that provides free civil legal services to low-income people. Offers help for foreclosure prevention and legal assistance to fight homeowner assistance scams.
http://www.nwjustice.org/
Washington State Housing Finance Commission
is a publicly accountable, self-supporting team, dedicated to increasing housing access and affordability and to expanding the availability of quality community services for the people of Washington.
http://www.wshfc.org/
City of Seattle Office of Housing
funds affordable workforce housing, both rental and ownership, as well as supportive housing that helps vulnerable people achieve stability and move along a path toward self-sufficiency. The Seattle Foreclosure Prevention Program, part of the Office of Housing, provides financial and mortgage counseling, assistance in working with lenders, and stabilization loans of up to $5,000.
http://www.seattle.gov/housing/buying/ForeclosurePrevention.htm
Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle:
Strives to empower, enable and assist African Americans, other people of color, and disadvantaged individuals in becoming self-sufficient through public advocacy, providing services and developing strong business and community partnerships.
http://www.urbanleague.org/about.shtml
Around the United States:
HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development)
has HUD approved credit counseling services and homeowner assistance agencies listed by state.
http://www.hud.gov/
Consumer Federation of America (CFA)
is an advocacy, research, education, and service organization. On its website it claims to be: “An advocacy group working to advance pro-consumer policy on a variety of issues before Congress, the White House, federal and state regulatory agencies, state legislatures, and the courts.” Under its umbrella it lists a few hundred consumer advocacy agencies. Be careful to check the agencies listed and not assume they all legit, just double check their references and web consumer comments.
http://www.consumerfed.org/
National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC)
Promotes the national agenda for financially responsible behavior and builds capacity for its Members to deliver the highest quality financial education and counseling services.
http://www.nfcc.org/index.cfm
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The Credit Card Bill of Rights
President Obama is encouraging Congress to pass a credit card reform bill. At a town hall meeting on May 14th in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, Obama declared that the current administration would continue to crack down on credit card company bad business practices. The president assured all Americans that our country would not go back to the "pursuit of short-term profits and a bubble-and-bust" economy, citing it as the very reason we are in a recession
Due to the economic crisis caused by the extraordinary fiscal irresponsibility of our nation's banks and credit card companies, Americans are struggling now more than ever to make ends meet. The crisis has forced even fiscally conservative working folk to rely on credit cards for everyday expenses.
Major creditors like Bank of America, Chase (JP Morgan), and Citibank have been bailed out by the government for their misuse of depositor and shareholder funds to the tune of $500 billion and counting. Additionally, these companies have invested other people's money (yours) in unregulated dangerously risky financial vehicles at the expense of borrowers, depositors, and taxpayers. Yet they continue to ring out every cent of victimized taxpayer money by jacking up interest rates and charging exorbitant fees.
Help is finally on the way for American consumer. Obama is on a mission to balance the scales between consumers shouldering the burden for errant bankers by limiting unreasonable fees.
Here are some basic principles President Obama has asked Congress to incorporate in its credit card reform bill:
(1) Consumers will be protected from predatory lending practices, such as unfair interest rate
increases, and abusive fees and penalties.
(2) Companies will have to write forms and statements in real English, the kind everyone can understand not
just lawyers.
(3) Companies will also have to make contract terms accessible to consumers so they can pick the credit card that works best for them.
(4) The government will increase monitoring, enforcement, and penalties and hold companies using deceptive practices accountable.
Credit companies are struggling too and trying to make ends meet anyway they can. However, credit is an important part of our economic system, and excessive charges and hidden fees, double interest rates arbitrarily are abusive business practices that result in legal "loan sharking" according to New Hampshire Senator Bernie Sanders. The future of credit is fair and balanced.
President Obama's new initiative is to bring that balance into the marketplace and finally represent consumers to the same degree we represent bankers.
Reported by Debby Almonte
Read More of Obama’s Speech-
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The Trouble with the Troubled Asset Relief Program
SOLUTION:
GoodB.org supports and applauds the research of the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP) under direction of Harvard Economics Professor, Elizabeth Warren. According to the second report issued by the Panel on January 9, 2009, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) lacks a reliable system of transparency. (www.cop.senate.gov). According to TARP guidelines, beneficiaries must provide full disclosure of funds. Under TARP, Congress reserves the right to retroactively change regulations and uses of TARP funds or ask for return of funds if conditions are not met. GoodB is urging government representatives to act on the issues of transparency and accountability named in the Congressional Oversight Report and demand full and immediate accounting or return of these funds.
PROBLEM:
COP Report: 1) Bank Accountability. The Panel still does not know what the banks are doing with taxpayer money.
GoodB: Why Not?
COP: (2) Transparency and Asset Evaluation. The need for transparency is closely related to the issue of accountability. The confidence that Treasury seeks can be restored only when information is completely transparent and reliable. Currently, Treasury’s strategy appears to involve allocating the majority of the $700 billion to “healthy banks,” banks that have been assessed by their regulators as viable without federal assistance.
COP: Many understood the purpose of EESA to be providing assistance to financial institutions
that were “unhealthy” and at risk of failing. Treasury provided Citigroup with a $25 billion cash infusion as part of the “healthy banks” program whereby Treasury made nine initial investments in major banks. About two months later, Treasury provided Citigroup with $20 billion in additional equity financing, apparently to avoid systemic failure.
GoodB Facts: Citibank was teetering on the brink of economic collapse since CEO Prince was forced to resign in November 2007 due to billions in subprime debt losses. The Treasury could not have responsibly evaluated Citigroup as “healthy” weeks before its 20 billion dollar rescue and 300 billion dollar backstop of the insolvent bank. Every bank the Treasury gave money to was “unhealthy” and at risk due to bad subprime debt. Bank of America and JP Morgan took billions of dollars of write downs & losses beginning in late 2007. In 2008, these banks swallowed up insolvent banking giants Merrill Lynch and Washington Mutual respectively inheriting billions more of bad debt with this.
GoodB Action: GoodB.org, on behalf of American citizens is contacting members of Congress to demand accountability for funds from beneficiaries. To that end, GoodB.org is sending a letter to 100 US Senators and Congressmen and women urging action.
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