As holiday revelers toasted the season, a key federal regulator took two steps to ensure that 2016 would bring an important change for consumers harassed by illegal debt collector actions.
On Dec. 16 and its third action against a large national payday lender, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered EZCorp, Inc. to refund $7.5 million to 93,000 consumers and pay an additional $3 million in penalties for illegal debt on high-cost payday and installment loans.
CFPB found that EZCORP collected debts with a litany of illegal actions that included visits to homes and/or workplaces. Even worse, by requiring payments via electronic fund transfers, consumers often wound up with multiple charges. The required electronic withdrawals from consumer accounts frequently triggered additional overdraft fees charged by banks. CFPB’s investigation that began in July determined multiple violations of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act’s ban on unfair or deceptive acts or practices.
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