News

2021

September

27

• Companies are hoarding your personal data. How to get them to delete it. What data can you actually request to delete? When we say “your data,” we mean information like your name, phone number, email and home address. Some companies collect far more, like your age,

22

• Financial pain points for older consumers. Ten years after its creation, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) complaint database serves as a powerful tool for individuals to file complaints about a financial product or service, to see that their

21

• Medicare should be able to negotiate drug prices. For far too long, the pharmaceutical industry has dictated who in America has access to the medicines they need for their health and well-being.  The industry’s unchecked power to set and keep

• Insurers restore deductibles, co-pays leaving patients with big bills. In 2020, as the pandemic took hold, U.S. health insurance companies declared they would cover 100 percent of the costs for covid treatment, waiving co-pays and expensive deductibles for hospital stays that frequently range into the

20

• La pandemia afectó tu economía. Esto debes hacer. Quizá perdiste tu trabajo. Tal vez te recortaron las horas. Quizá tuviste que hacerte cargo de alguien. Si tus ingresos decayeron de forma drástica en los últimos 18 meses &mdash

13

• Equifax will now offer credit reports in Spanish. Equifax will offer Spanish-translated credit reports for free, both online and via mail.  The move will help more than 62 million Spanish speakers in the U.S. Equifax is the first credit reporting firm to

• How you pay the rent may help your mortgage application. Later this month, a group of renters in the United States will get a new break when they try to become homeowners: Their history of consistently paying their landlords will count toward qualifying for a

09

• CFPB wants to hear hear from small business owners about access to credit. The CFPB is asking small business owners to share their experiences while trying to get a small business loan or during the process of getting a loan. The Bureau says that this will help inform

• HHS releases plan to lower drug prices. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra released a comprehensive plan to lower drug prices. The Drug Pricing Plan is part of a broader initiative stemming from President Joe Biden’s Executive Order

02

• New York extends eviction moratorium to January. New York State lawmakers agreed to extend sweeping protections against evictions into next year. The new agreement, which extends the moratorium through Jan.15 and was passed by the State Legislature late Wednesday, now creates one

• ‘El algoritmo me despidió’: un proyecto de ley de California apunta a cambiar la dura cultura laboral de Amazon. Los legisladores de California tienen a Amazon en la mira. Se espera que un proyecto de ley aprobado por la Asamblea llegue al Senado esta semana, o la próxima, para corregir las turbias

01

• Consumer Action INSIDER - September 2021. In this month's edition, we report on new members to our board, examine inaccurate news reports, share some stories from student loan borrowers who were burned by the federal government's public service loan forgiveness program, and present our recorded webinar on how to get the temporary Emergency Broadband Benefit, a monthly subsidy that can help your household connect to high speed broadband for less money.

August

31

• La forma de conducir y el historial crediticio ayudarían a la detección temprana de la demencia. El deterioro cerebral puede comenzar años antes de la aparición de síntomas. El comportamiento cotidiano puede arrojar advertencias.

30

• The financial price for choosing not to get vaccinated. You could lose your job as more employers require workers to get vaccinated. If you’re opposed to being vaccinated, your employer-provided health insurance premiums might go up. Delta Air Lines has said employees

• ¿Comprar o esperar? Una guía para cambiar de celular. Apple, Samsung y otras compañías quieren que sustituyamos nuestros teléfonos constantemente, pero muchos fallas tienen solución.

26

• Fraud alert: Malicious QR codes. Con artists have added QR codes to a variety of familiar scams. Based on reports to the BBB Scam Tracker, these hoaxes include advance fee loan, employment, and utility scams. Here’s how to

• About 89% of rental assistance funds have not been distributed. The Emergency Rental Assistance Program, funded in the two federal pandemic relief packages passed over the last year, sputtered along in July, with just $1.7 billion being distributed by state and local governments, according to the

25

• What's preventing Americans from getting the Emergency Broadband Benefit. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in our country, millions of Americans cannot connect to the internet because they can’t afford to, preventing them from going to school, working, accessing government benefits and connecting with

24

• Privacy of streaming apps and devices: Watching TV that watches us. We reviewed the privacy protections in the top 10 streaming apps, as well as the top five streaming devices, that include programming directed at kids and families and found that most apps and devices are using

23

• Seeking early signals of dementia in driving and credit scores. Learning your odds of eventually developing dementia — a pressing concern for many, especially those with a family history of it — requires medical testing and counseling. But what if everyday behavior, like overlooking a