CFPB has your back for all who hate companies that trick you with their subscription services

[Tadpole Raisin]

I’ve been getting several notices from them lately. Love this organization and wish they had a little more publicity.
All the republicans wanted to do was put a stranglehold on their budget and destroy them. They hate anything that takes money out of their pockets.


https://www.consumerfinance.gov/compliance/circulars/consumer-financial-protection-circular-2023-01-unlawful-negative-option-marketing-practices/

Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a new circular affirming that companies offering “negative option” subscription services must comply with federal consumer financial protection law. Negative option programs include subscription services that automatically renew unless you affirmatively cancel, and trial marketing programs that charge a reduced fee for an initial period and then automatically begin charging a higher fee.

Companies risk violating the law if they do not clearly and conspicuously disclose the terms of their subscription services and obtain your informed consent, or if they make it unreasonably difficult for you to cancel.

Today’s circular continues the CFPB’s focus on raising awareness about the growing scourge of dark pattern practices—design features used to deceive, steer, or manipulate users—and other harmful tactics that companies use to trick consumers into paying for products or services they do not want. The CFPB is partnering with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in its effort to combat the rise of digital dark patterns, and both agencies will continue to monitor these practices and bring agency actions where needed.

[RSherman]

1. Car wash

This just happened to me. New car wash in my area. I signed up for a $9.99 subscription for one month. Then I noticed a charge for $38.99 on my credit card. I contacted the company and they claim I agreed to an ongoing subscription. If I did, the print must have been pretty small. Plus, this was done at a kiosk. I never saw anything about an ongoing agreement. I HATE deceit! Just let the price be the price and the deal be the deal and allow consumers to make their own decisions. In my opinion, this just creates bad PR and negative feelings toward the company. Cheap tricks. Cannot believe it's good for the companies in the long run.

[ThoughtCriminal]

2. One of them has been harassing my 92 year old father

He subscribed, but not for automatic renewal (he kept a copy of the subscription form). He did not renew and now he is getting "Past-due" notices and threats of being turned over to the "Collections" department.

I'm ready to get as medieval as I can on their ass on both the state and federal levels.

Thanks for letting me know of additional resource.

[Tadpole Raisin]

6. Nothing makes me angrier than a company misleading an older person!

(Whoops I’m getting there)! I’ll bet state consumer laws are worse in red states.

Maybe also you can see if your council on aging in your father’s area can advise or even the consumer office of your state’s AG office can help, although it sounds like you have been dealing with this for awhile. Grrr

Good luck!!

[LittleGirl]

3. Sounds like cell services and cable subscriptions

One of the worst automatic billings one is right here in Europe.
Sign up for say, a gym membership and they fix it so you can only cancel the 90 days prior to the renewal date. If you don’t cancel during that prescribed 90 days, you are automatically charged for the renewal for the full year. It’s daylight robbery.

It’s happened to us twice. We are very careful now.

[aggiesal]

4. How about they fix the Credit Rating system? I would love that ...

The way the credit rating system works, is that you need to have credit to get a great score.
I stopped using credit cards back in the early 90's. I paid for everything I bought out of my salary or investments.
If I couldn't afford it, I didn't buy it. So my Credit Score was considered really bad, around the 300's - 400's area.
I was told to get a credit card and don't spend more than 30% of your credit limit.
Buy something on credit every month and pay it off completely every month.

How utterly stupid is this?
If you can show you're good with money without a credit card, then your credit score should be at the highest level.

Otherwise, the Credit Ratings system is forcing people who are not good with money to start buying on credit, then
they get into trouble, and super hard to get out of.

I now own 2 credit cards, but not for the credits, but for the rebates and points.
CostCo pays me a percentage of stuff I was going to buy anyway.
Then I go home and transfer the money I just paid CostCo into a separate account for paying off the bill when it arrives.
I get between $300 - $500 in cashback.

I have a BonVoy card for travel, I used that for points. I do the same thing, transfer the money into a separate account and pay bill full when it arrives. Today BonVoy increased my limit. So I just called them to tell them to put it back to it's original limit.

I'm not interested in more limits, only cash-backs and points.

[Tadpole Raisin]

5. I use the cc exactly as they recommended. It is ridiculous

but it works (I think you’re right though that you have shown that by your way you’ve proven you are careful with money but there is no way to track it). Such an evil!

My nonm never had a cc but hey women weren’t allowed to get a cc without a male relative signing for it before 1980 or so.

What a crock of ….!

[aggiesal]

10. ... but it works ...

Yes but it shouldn't work that way.
There is no way to track if you get a CC for the first time as a college graduate either, but they gave out cards to them.
It would be no different with a 40-50 year old who doesn't have any debt to get a card, and their credit rating should be at maximum not minimum. It should go down when not paying your debt.

When I graduated from college, I was able to get an American Express Card at 22.
My co-workers said it was harder to get an AMEX card then to get a security clearance at that time.

[ck4829]

7. K&R

Last edited Fri Jan 27, 2023, 11:53 AM - Edit history (1)

Class disparities

[trof]

8. I was taken advantage of by a roofing company.

It was right after we were hit hard by Hurricane Sally.
Coastal Alabama.
I'm 81 and don't see well.
Macular degeneration.

Long story, but I wound up contacting county DA and state AG's office of consumer affairs.
Filed a complaint citing fraud and elder abuse.
The company lost their business license in my town and were expelled from the state homebuilders association.

You have to know where to go and who to talk to.

[Tadpole Raisin]

9. I'm sorry you had to go through that on top of the stress of dealing with the

hurricane but your report of how it worked out made me smile, thank you.

Different type of story -years ago I was at a fellow’s apartment (section 8) and the apartment had a lot of safety violations. He and his wife had been trying to get them to fix things for months but were ignored.

He had just come home from surgery for a broken neck and was fitted with a halo vest so his fall risk was huge. I was appalled and with his permission called the maintenance department and politely but firmly said everything needed to be fixed yesterday.

Must have put the fear of death in them as everything was done in the next 2 days. Chalk one up for the little guy over Goliath!

[Midnight Writer]

11. Anyone remember trying to cancel an AOL subscription?

[Takket]

12. i got screwed out of $60 because of this......

i signed up for a streaming service, annual subscription. I had paid for it, and decided i didn't want it anymore. I logged in and there was no option but to CANCEL the subscription, which was pointless because i'd already paid for a year. So I made an alarm on my computer to cancel a few days before the year was up. Well, for some reason my computer didn't notify me when the date came, and i forgot about it, and got dinged for another year. But what was upsetting was i didn't even have an option to disable auto-renewal WITHOUT cancelling the year i already paid for.

[AllyCat]

13. Online newspapers

I literally had to change my credit card number on file (to wrong number) to stop NYT charging me.