From the Pennsylvania Public Interest Research Group (http://www.pennpirg.org/home):
If you have a credit card or bank account, you likely won’t be able to sue your bank if they commit fraud or charge illegal fees. Big banks bury “ripoff clauses” deep in the fine print of customer contracts to force regular people, like those scammed by Wells Fargo, out of public court and into secret arbitration proceedings weighted against consumers.
In great news, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) just put an end to that by restoring consumers’ to join together and hold bad actor companies accountable. But before the ink was even dry, members of Congress moved to repeal this important consumer protection.
Go to http://p2a.co/ssMEkZc to tell your Representative: Stand with consumers, not Wells Fargo. Don’t take away my right to hold big banks accountable in court!
In forced arbitration, your chances of holding the company accountable plummet. Not only are you barred from joining other consumers in a class action lawsuit, but the corporation gets to pick a private arbitration firm to decide your case.
It’s no surprise these firms side with the corporation 93% of the time.
As long as Congress doesn’t interfere, the new CFPB rule means consumers will once again be able to hold big banks and payday lenders accountable in court when they break the law. But a vote to repeal is imminent.
A fact sheet about how this affects Pennsylvania specifically is here.
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