Your Money, Your Goals - A financial empowerment toolkit for social services programs.

MODULE 14:

Protecting consumer rights

Part of being a smart consumer is understanding your rights. When you know you have rights,
you can protect yourself. There are many laws that protect your rights when it comes to financial
products and services. It is the CFPB’s job to enforce these laws and handle consumers’
complaints about financial products and services.

The CFPB has already handled thousands of consumer complaints about:

 Credit cards

 Mortgages

 Bank accounts and services

 Private student loans

 Vehicle or consumer loans

 Payday loans

 Debt collection

 Money transfers

 Credit reporting

Based on these complaints and research, the CFPB takes action to stop practices that are unfair,
deceptive, abusive, or otherwise violate the law. In many cases, we partner with other federal
agencies and state officials to address these problems.

Through our enforcement actions, the CFPB can require companies to refund money to
customers when their consumer rights have been violated.