Defend Your Dollars is the website of the Consumers Union Financial Services Campaign, where we support reforms to the financial marketplace to curb bad practices by banks and lenders.
We expect the government to keep dangerous products off the market – toys, prescription drugs, food. But dangerous financial products? Read more »
Going to the grocery store can hold more dangers than rotten meat or tainted spinach – the Associated Press reports that thieves stole 4.2 million payment card numbers from an East Coast supermarket chain. About 1,800 of those numbers already are being fraudulently used. Read more »
Stolen credit cards, stolen Social Security numbers and now stolen tax refunds? The Internal Revenue Service’s national taxpayer advocate lists ID theft among the most serious problems facing taxpayers today. Read more »
The bankruptcy filing of Sharper Image raises questions beyond where you can get a Human Touch Zero-Gravity Massage Chair. Namely, if you have a Sharper Image gift card – or a gift card for any other retailer facing financial troubles – can you still use it? Read more »
Money Mom and many of her colleagues at Consumers Union got a brochure in the mail this past week from the Postal Service warning about identity theft. The brochure is from the Federal Trade Commission and tells consumers how to “Deter, Detect and Defend” themselves from identity thieves… with one glaring oversight: no information on how to place a security freeze. Read more »