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WHERE DID YOU GET GOT?
Where wronged consumers can turn for help
By Lynda Edwards• Bankrate.com
Fifth in a
five-part series:
In the greatest corporate movie thriller of all
time, The Bad Sleep Well, a financier tells the man he's
about to hurl from a skyscraper, "Virtue means nothing. Connections
are everything. For the mean-spirited and powerful, help is always
one phone call away."
We hate to break it to you, but -- he was
right! Without allies in a crisis, good character won't mean
jack in a fight. So start the New Year armed with this e-mail survival
kit of consumer watchdogs and government agencies. It's their job
to come to the rescue when bad banks, car dealers and creditors
happen to good consumers.
Bad banks
First, write to the bank's president if the
branch manager refuses to help. Consumer advocates stress the importance
of paper correspondence even in the computer age. If that effort
fails to solve the problem, try:
The Federal
Trade Commission for ATM errors.
The Office
of the Comptroller of the Currency for other bank problems,
such as fee overcharges. This site also has a keyword search engine
that helps consumers navigate the laws and current news about bank
transactions. Charitable organizations and civic activists can also
find out here how to get bank donations under the Community Reinvestment
Act.
Both sites post state and regional governmental
agencies that take consumer complaints about banks, their phone
numbers, addresses and walk-in hours. Another site listing state
bank regulators is at the federal government's Consumer
Information Center in Pueblo, Colo. The banking list is part
of the center's online Consumer's
Resource Handbook, which has many other useful lists of state
regulators and sources of consumer assistance.
The Web
Investor lists the bankers' associations for all 50 states and
their Web addresses. These are groups dedicated to maintaining the
image and integrity of their profession (much as bar associations
keep watch over lawyers). If there's a bad bank, the state association
wants to know, so use the complaint procedure they describe.
Bad Internet banking
Report suspicious online transactions to the
FDIC.
The bank fails
Consumers can call the FDIC's public liaisons
for advice. Phone numbers and e-mail addresses for each state are
on the FDIC
site.
Nondeposit investment products
Many banks now sell mutual funds, annuities,
insurance and other nondeposit investment products, sometimes right
in the lobby of your local branch. If you have a complaint about
a bank that sells these products directly, or about bad advice from
a bank-employed financial planner:
Call or e-mail the Securities
and Exchange Commission at 202-942-7040.
If the bank is involved only as a distributor
of financial advice from an outside investment firm, the National
Association of Securities Dealers will follow through on consumer
complaints: 301-590-6500. Consumers can even register a request
for free arbitration on the site.
Credit union complaints
The National
Credit Union Administration is the government office that can
help you if you have a problem with a credit union.
Thrift complaints
The Office
of Thrift Supervision has a Web site.
Bad credit card companies
The OCC
and FTC
sites offer direct links to state and regional governmental consumer
offices taking credit card holder complaints.
CreditComm
offers great advice from consumer groups across the nation, including
how to spot and fight hidden fees, what to do when your card is
stolen and updates on the various scams con artists are using.
The Consumer
Law Handbook is a wonderfully helpful service of Cornell University.
The site gives the full text of every federal consumer credit law
from the Equal Credit Opportunity Act to the Fair Credit Debt Collection
Act. Accompanying the legalese are useful articles explaining what
the laws mean in normal English. News about U.S. Supreme Court and
U.S. Circuit Court decisions regarding credit and collectors is
posted and updated. Do not fail to consult this page if you're heading
toward small claims court or a bigger legal battle.
Public
Citizen is the consumer watchdog organization founded by Ralph
Nader -- so if you think he's a wild liberal, be forewarned. However,
the site often contains useful studies of scams deployed by car
dealers and creditors. And if you e-mail one of the researchers
here, you can be assured of a timely and concerned response.
Bad credit reporting agencies
Victims
of Credit Reporting offers news about new and pending credit
legislation, credit scoring, debtors' legal rights and warnings
about how banks use credit report data to discriminate against women
and minorities. It's a good resource if your local consumer affairs
or state attorney general's office is tardy in responding to complaints.
The Web site even offers advice about how to
thwart credit bureau snooping. When making a purchase with a personal
check, for example, a consumer should never give a cashier an unlisted
home phone number to jot down. All that information scribbled on
checks can be sold by the store to credit bureaus to help them compile
their files.
The Public
Interest Research Group, or PIRG, is a nonprofit research institute.
It gives links to consumer agencies that help correct credit report
errors. A study of credit bureau procedures and mistakes is on the
site.
Bad used cars
Lemon law summaries for all 50 states are posted
at Autopedia.
Consumers' rights vary wildly from state to state, so this is a
good starting point.
Better Business Bureau
There are online complaint
forms here that can be filed by e-mail. While the Better Business
Bureau has no legally binding power, it wields clout with businesses
whose profit depends on good-word-of-mouth among customers. Consumers
can check here
to see if a business has complaints filed against it.
If you need a breather from
fighting the good fight
Enhanced versions of the film noir corporate
thrillers The Bad Sleep Well and High and Low (based
on an Evan Hunter detective novel) are on video. Both are directed
by Akira Kurosawa, who gave Americans their first bloody samurai
movies.
Yes, you have to read subtitles. But both movies
are exciting, with surprise endings. And Bad features a murder
mystery, cruel bosses and a brilliant revenge. Take notes.
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