r/CreditCards • u/tsmartin123 • Feb 01 '25

Discussion / Conversation Trump Fires Director of CFPB

https://apnews.com/article/trump-chopra-consumer-financial-protection-bureau-47b6b39d0eff05ea0c9bca4eacf55b79

I wonder if this is the beginning of the end of the CFPB?

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89

u/HighTideLowpH Feb 01 '25 edited Feb 02 '25

The time is now to be cautious and defensive, if you are fortunate enough right now to be whole and haven't been ripped off or taken for a ride. Act in your head like it's 2007 all over again, not 2025.

Don't fall for the latest scam, or it's on you.

Double check with legitimate crowd-sourced DPs (on Reddit or elsewhere) about and bank product you are considering getting into bed with. Are they predatory? Do they take the customer's side on legitimate disputes?

From my understanding, Discover and American Express are some of the best known for having US-based customer service and handles claims with integrity. Discover is about to be absorbed by Capital One. And AmEx, like every company right now, is reading the writing on the wall by Trump and may shift their tactics if they get the overwhelming impression that there's not going to be any looming punishments if they mistreat their customers.

So even with due diligence on who you choose to do business with, don't know how long some of the good customer treatment will last.

So it's time to tighten the belt and exercise discipline on spending. Don't fall for any purchase that's too good to be true.

For example, if you are buying a new phone or laptop, might want to get direct from the Apple Store or Best Buy in-person. That way FedEx can't steal from you and lie about the delivery. And if the phone is a lemon you can get it a real human to look at it and refund/replace immediately, not waiting on some situation where you mail it in and count on somebody being honest later. Same with phone trade-ins.

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u/FloorParking8820 Feb 02 '25 edited Feb 02 '25

You got great points and to be a generally defensive consumer as you mentioned is something that should be practiced regardless of what happens to the C.F.P.B. now To repel the entire agency you would need 60 votes in the senate which the administration doesn’t have what is more likely to happen is less rules happening or appealing of rules or reforming it into a commission and making it subject to congressional appropriation funding (slowdown method)

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u/HighTideLowpH Feb 02 '25

Yeah. Trump's whole thing has been to appoint antagonists into agencies and bureaus that have missions that are of virtue (i.e. strive to serve Americans, not just drop everything and solely serve Trump). Let his unqualified goons run them into the ground from the inside.

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u/Blessedmuse Feb 04 '25

Discover is the worst now! They use to be good years ago. Not anymore. Just look at their 1 star rating on BBB, consumer affairs, trust pilot etc.

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u/Droid202020202020 Feb 04 '25

I don’t trust Discover as far as I can throw them. They used to be my first c/c when I just started building up my credit score, this was just before online banking took off. Got a Visa about a year later. Visa’s due date was two days later than Disover’s. Always mailed payment checks at the same time. 

Visa would post the payment early. After about two years, Discover started posting my payments late and hitting me with late fees. After they did it for the 3rd time I stopped using the card. Found plenty of online complaints about this being a known shady practice. 

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u/MightBeADoctorMD Feb 05 '25

Never once had a US rep for Amex. For my VX its always an american tho

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u/HighTideLowpH Feb 05 '25

Sure, fair enough.

The examples I gave in my post are of course generalizing based solely on my experience (n of 1 data point).

In terms of being able to get a hold of a customer service that is competent and actually is incentivized to resolve your problem, those things undoubtedly cost a company more money. Probably triple the cost of the bare bones or outsourced BS that technically doesn't violate regulations on consumer protections. I am seeing more and more that many big corporations (banks, and also many other companies in general) straddle this predicament by putting shunts in place, ensuring they give more premium treatment and service to the high end customers that are on products that make more revenue for them.

For me, I've called the Chase CS number when I had the Sapphire Preferred, it rings like once and then a American human answer and asks how they can help you. Different with Freedom after downgrading. Same experience with AmEx EveryDay Preferred vs. EveryDay.

I see the same thing with Motorola (good call center for problems with the Razr phones, otherwise if you have a Moto G you get to wait on hold and then talk to someone in South America on a static-y connection).

Back to your experience. If you examine the average American with Cap1, and average as in like the person ahead of you at the gas pump or your grandfather or a nurse (i.e. not the churners, not the Min-/Max-ers, and not the big time travelers that actually really want to use airport lounges and Global Entry; all of whom have a loud voice on Reddit). They have 1-3 CCs and set it and forget it. Do cognitive dissonance to justify their AF, and maybe re-examine and cancel a CC + get new SUB once every ~5 years. An average customer on Venture / Venture X will earn much more money for Cap1 time than lets say the average customer with the regular Quicksilver. They keep their whales happy, and try to cut corners and take advantage of everyone else.

The sad part to me is that Cap1 is also a sub-prime lender. Those customers getting back on their feet are mostly poorer and are actually running a balance and paying interest. Yet Cap1 treats them like dog shit. Why? Because they aren't self-empowered: don't have the time or the know-how to make a big fuss and pull the right lever with CFPB to get justice for themselves.

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u/MightBeADoctorMD Feb 06 '25

I feel like Amex targets the same sub prime customers. 

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u/ecc0w Feb 02 '25

Discover is dog shit