THE ECONOMY DOES NOT HAVE TO DETERMINE YOUR DESTINY IF YOU HAVE A PLAN AND YOU FOLLOW IT, YOU WILL BE UNSTOPPABLE!

To love what you do and feel that it matters, how can anything be more fun.- Katharine Graham

Borrowers Protection Laws Part V

Here are the last three laws that are designed to protect you:

The Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act of 1974
RESPA requires lenders to disclose the nature and costs of real estate settlements, and was also meant to protect borrowers against abusive practices, such as kickbacks, and limits the use of escrow accounts.

The Right to Financial Privacy Act of 1978
This law protects bank customers from the unlawful scrutiny of their financial records by federal agencies and specifies procedures that government authorities must follow when they seek information about a customer’s records from a financial institution.

The Truth in Lending Act
The Truth in Lending Act was originally enacted in 1968 to require uniform methods for computing the cost of credit and for disclosing credit terms. It gives borrowers the right to cancel, within three days, certain loans secured by their residences, prohibits the unsolicited issuance of credit cards, and limits cardholder liability for unauthorized use. It also imposes limitations on home equity loans with rates or fees above a specified threshold.

Truth in Savings Act
This 1991 law requires banks to disclose certain information to depositors about their accounts (including the annual percentage yield, which must be calculated in a uniform manner) and prohibits certain methods of calculating interest. Regulates advertising of savings accounts.

I hope you have found these laws useful. If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to call.

Borrowers Protection Laws Part IV

Here are four more Borrower Protection Laws:

The Federal Trade Commission Improvement Act
This 1980 law authorizes the Federal Reserve to identify unfair or deceptive acts or practices by banks and to issue regulations to prohibit them. It is similar to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (which is enforced by the FTC). Since the law’s inception, the Federal Reserve has adopted similar rules that restrict certain consumer debt collection practices.

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act
This law governs the privacy of consumer financial information, and imposes limitations on financial institutions on the disclosure of consumers’ personal information to third parties, and also provides a method for consumers to opt out of information sharing. Financial institutions are also required to notify consumers about their privacy policies and practices.

The Home Equity Loan Consumer Protection Act of 1988
Congress enacted this law in 1988 to protect consumers against unconscionable terms included in home equity loans. It places restrictions on home equity loan offers, and requires lenders to provide consumers with detailed information about the loans they offer, including a brochure describing home equity loans in general. It also regulates the advertising methods employed by of home equity loans and restricts the terms of home equity loan plans.

The Homeowners Protection Act of 1998
This law established rules for automatic termination and borrower cancellation of private mortgage insurance (PMI) on home mortgages.

Borrowers Protection Laws Part III

As a continuation from the past two weeks, I would like to add more Borrower Protection Laws.

Here are three:

The Fair Credit Reporting Act
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is a major piece of legislation first enacted by Congress in 1970, and has been amended on numerous occasions. The law is designed to protect consumers against inaccurate or misleading information reported to and maintained by credit reporting agencies. It requires credit reporting agencies to provide consumers with an opportunity to correct errors on their credit reports.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
The FDCPA prohibits abusive debt-collection practices employed by third party debt collectors, such as collection agencies, and imposes significant penalties against violators.

The Fair Housing Act
This 1968 law prohibits discrimination in the extension of credit for housing, such as mortgages, on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, handicap, or family status.

Borrowers Protection Laws Part II

Borrower Protection Laws are put into place to protect you from any harm while you are trying to conduct any type of financial action. It is important to know these laws so you are not taken advantage of.

Here are 3 more laws:

The Expedited Funds Availability Act
This 1987 law specifies when banks must make funds deposited by consumers available to them, and requires banks to inform customers of their funds availability policies.

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act of 2003
This law was enacted as an amendment to the FCRA in order to assist consumers in combating identity theft and other matters that negatively affect their credit rating. It also allowed consumers to exercise greater control over the type and amount of marketing solicitations they receive, restricted the use and disclosure of sensitive medical information, and established uniform national standards in the regulation of consumer reporting.

The Fair Credit and Charge Card Disclosure Act of 1988
This law regulates credit card offers directed to consumers, and comes into effect whenever a consumer is presented with a credit card application (i.e., through the mail, the Internet, a bank, or a retailer). It requires credit applications to contain information about key terms of the account.

Borrowers Protection Laws

The federal government has enacted numerous statutes, rules, and regulations designed to protect consumers from unscrupulous lenders and other financial entities. These laws govern nearly every financial transaction a consumer might encounter.

Lending institutions, creditors, collection agencies, and other businesses that are regulated by these laws are all required to follow them, but that doesn’t mean that all of them do. As is often the case, what you don’t know can hurt you, and many companies take advantage of consumers’ ignorance of the laws that were enacted to protect them.

What follows is a very brief summary of some of these laws, what they do, and who has to follow them.

The Consumer Leasing Act of 1976
This law requires finance companies to disclose the cost and terms of automobile and other consumer leases.

The Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA)
Enacted in 1978, the EFTA governs the manner in which consumers and financial institutions utilize electronic fund transfer services, such at ATMs, POS (point-of-sale) terminals, and preauthorized transfers directly from one bank account to another. This law comes into effect whenever you withdraw funds from an ATM machine, use your credit card, or pay bills online.

The Equal Credit Opportunity Act
Congress enacted this law in 1974 to prohibit discrimination in credit transactions on the basis of sex, age, race, religion, color, national origin, and other grounds. It requires creditors to grant credit to qualified individuals without requiring signature by spouses, and to inform unsuccessful applicants in writing why they were denied credit.

Over the next few weeks, I will be posting more laws and how they are designed to protect you.