All Things Reform: credit cards

Showing posts with label credit cards. Show all posts

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Federal employee travel credit card abuse "in the millions of dollars" each year

Government reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise.
From: POGO- Project on Government Oversight

Taxpayers are Victims of Continued Government Charge Card Abuse

Contact: Scott Amey, 202-347-1122 or Marthena Cowart, 202-347-3958

[In a bureaucracy the size of our federal government, we can expect, during peace time and prosperity, daily small financial abuses from many of its employees. However, in the time of wars and skyrocketing national debt, credit card abuse during the George W Bush administration is shameful. -ATR]

A recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report obtained by the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) highlights long-standing systemic weaknesses and mismanagement in federal credit card spending.

CRS’s report details abuses in the federal government travel card program that are costing the government and taxpayers “millions of dollars annually.” Travel cards are used by government officials for airline, hotel, and related travel expenses. CRS looked at Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Inspector General (IG) travel card reports, and found that:

Improper or unauthorized charges included $3,700 for laser eye surgery, reimbursement of nearly $10,000 for tickets that an official didn’t purchase, a first-class trip to Hawaii, and numerous upgrades to premium-class accommodations.
Agencies failed to recover millions of dollars in unused tickets – the Department of Defense had $100 million in unused tickets from 1997 to 2003.
Delinquent travel card payments prevented the government from receiving maximum potential rebates from card vendors.
Travel card spending increased from $4.39 million in FY 1999 to $8.28 million in FY 2008.

“A private travel agency would be out of business running this kind of operation,” declared Scott Amey, POGO’s General Counsel. “This report summarizes problems with individual transactions and, more importantly, with government agencies that aren’t safeguarding taxpayer dollars. Immediate improvements are needed, including improved oversight of all transactions, increased penalties for misuse, and enhanced processes to take full advantage of the benefits that travel cards were expected to bring.”

Legislation is pending in the Senate (S. 942) and House (H.R. 2189) that will add taxpayer protections for government travel cards and purchase cards (used for supplies and services).

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Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights passes US Senate; President Obama expected to sign identical House bill before Memorial Day

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Government reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise.
From: U.S. PIRG

Statement: Credit Card Bill passes Senate

Statement of Ed Mierzwinski, Consumer Program Director On Senate Passage of the Credit CARD Act

“U.S. PIRG commends the Senate on overwhelming passage of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act, S 414, as introduced by Senator Chris Dodd, Chair of the Senate Banking Committee. While the House has already passed a similar Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights, we expect that the House will simply pass the identical Senate bill so Congress can send a final bill for the President to sign before Memorial Day.

For too long, owning a credit card company has been a license to steal. Over the last few years, the banks increased their use of abusive tactics, such as changing due dates so they could trick consumers into paying late. Worse, they charged a double whammy—a high late fee first and then tripled interest rates to 36% APR or more. Second, they started charging good customers higher rates because they supposedly paid some other creditor late (universal default). But that wasn’t enough, so they started raising the rates of customers who’d been late to no creditor, for no reason at all. That was their biggest mistake. Gouging everyone caused thousands and thousands of Americans who just want a fair deal to contact Congress and even the Federal Reserve.

The Credit Card Act bans nearly all retroactive rate increases on current balances, it prohibits universal default in the first year and it protects college students from unfair marketing of credit cards.

I’ve been in Washington twenty years. For the first 19 we couldn’t even get a committee vote on credit card reform despite these practices.

Due to abusive practices by credit card companies, we are now on the verge of historic credit card reform. Is it everything we want? No, we should also ban raising rates going forward, not just retroactively, and we should ban forced arbitration clauses in credit card contracts and reinstate usury ceilings. But final passage of this historic credit card reform legislation will stop big credit card companies, many of which are feeding at the TARP taxpayer trough, from cheating Americans out of their hard-earned money. That will help working families so that they can become part of our economic recovery, not lurch on a credit card debt treadmill. It’s about time.”

-30-

Posted by Ed Mierzwinski at May 19, 2009 02:01 PM

[Original U.S. PIRG article accepts comments]

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Obama administration's transparency and accountability rules on registered lobbyists seeking stimulus funds ignore business executives

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Government reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise.
From: CREW- Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington

CREW Releases analysis of credit card execs' 2008 electoral cycle political giving

On the surface the Obama Administration's ban on oral communication between registered lobbyists and government officials seeking Recovery Act funds looks like it moves the ball forward on the administration's goals of transparency and accountability. Dig a little deeper and we see that it is little more than window dressing.

In light of President Obama's meeting with credit card executives on April 23 - and the administration's restrictive new rule on registered lobbyists seeking stimulus funds - CREW analyzed those industry executives' 2008 election cycle donations to illustrate the influence they wield in government.

The 14 credit card company executives met with President Obama "to discuss the impact of the current crisis on consumers." CREW's study found that the attendees - only one of whom is a registered lobbyist - personally donated roughly $50,000 to federal candidates, while employees of their companies contributed $14.5 million, and their companies' political action committees contributed $8.6 million. In addition, during the first quarter of 2009 alone, these companies spent almost $15.5 million on lobbying fees in an effort to influence legislators.

Last month, CREW, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the American League of Lobbyists (ALL) urged the White House to rewrite the new rule on registered lobbyists, because the rule will not result in the transparency the administration seeks. The rule restricts the ability of only registered lobbyists to influence decisions related to stimulus funds, but the influence game is played by more than lobbyists - it is played by CEOs and other top executives.

A stronger option, endorsed by CREW, the ACLU and ALL, would be to require disclosure of all communications - by non-lobbyists and lobbyists alike. This would more effectively target the backroom deals about which Americans are legitimately concerned. Only full transparency will allow the public to decide who is unduly influencing our country's policy and root-out corruption.

Learn more: Read CREW's examination of the 2008 election cycle political giving of the executives.

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Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Call your US Rep. and say YES to Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights

Government reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise. From: Public Citizen

Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights

We've all heard the news coming out of our financial markets. The United States government recently bailed out some big Wall Street banks, but it's now time to help consumers - people across the country who've been fleeced by predatory credit card practices during two decades of "anything goes" policy in Washington. While the large financial corporations on Wall Street are being bailed out of a mess that they created for themselves, millions of consumers on Main Street are still drowning in a sea of debt.

On July 31, 2008 the Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights, H.R. 5244, passed through the House Financial Services Committee despite vigorous opposition from the credit card industry. The industry is still fighting this bill, but we can pass it next week.

Take Action and write your representative today. Or better yet, CALL your representatives today to ask them to vote FOR the Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights, H.R. 5244, without any amendments that would stall or weaken the bill.

As the New York Times said, "The Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights would help rein in some of the worst abuses." Specifically, H.R. 5244 would:

Stop unjustifiable interest rate increases on existing balances.
End bait-and-switch contract clauses.
Apply the consumer's payment proportionally between high and low rate balances.
Stop "double cycle" billing, which requires consumers to pay interest on debts they've already paid off.
Give the consumer a chance to set a fixed credit limit and avoid over the limit fees.
Prohibit the granting of credit cards to consumers who are younger than 18 years-of-age.

Please take a moment out of your busy schedule - right now - to call or write your representative and tell them to support the Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights - without any amendments.

Once again, thank you for all that you do.

The Action Team

Public Citizen
action@citizen.org