People should be able to protect what they earn and make informed decisions about what to do with their money without facing unfair, discriminatory, or predatory practices. The marketplace today is riddled with hidden fees, confusing terms and conditions, biased pricing, and outrageously high interest rates. The scale and breadth of the economic crisis brought on by COVID-19 has exposed an even broader swath of consumers to financial hardship and has demonstrated the depth of structural problems and the urgent need for consumer protections.

Consumer Reports is working to make the marketplace more fair and just by advancing effective, high-impact financial protections, holding industry accountable and designing innovative policy and marketplace solutions that put consumers first.

Together with CR’s members, partners and allies, we’re working to:

• Provide relief to those financially impacted by the COVID-19 crisis so that they do not face long term financial consequences:
  • Cancel a meaningful amount of student debt, 
  • Prevent utility shut-offs throughout the crisis, 
  • Provide mortgage forbearance with a reasonable path to repayment, and 
  • Prohibit negative credit reporting.
• Ban loans with interest rates above 36% and preserve states’ ability to set more stringent caps in the future.
• Increase accuracy of, and consumer control over, data held by credit reporting agencies.
• Ensure that digital financial products do not create new, additional risks for consumers.
• Ban hidden and manipulative fees.

Learn more about how CR works with consumers, companies and policymakers in Washington, D.C. and statehouses across the country to help build a fair and just marketplace at TrustCR.org