From our president

This monthly letter to subscribers from Consumers Union President Jim Guest highlights the critical consumer issues behind our current reports. See archived letters.

The fine print

One of the first priorities of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which opened for business in July, is to combine the two (often incomprehensible) documents that mortgage lenders require consumers to sign into one understandable form.

And none too soon. A Consumer Reports national poll done in late 2010 found that 84 percent of the respondents who had applied for or received a loan or credit card in the prior 12 months said that they had some difficulty with the financial disclosure. Almost a third said the forms were not clear and were not easy to understand.

When a third of consumers don’t get the details of a document that could cost them tens of thousands of extra dollars over the life of a loan—or cost them their home—someone needs to put red pen to paper and do some rewriting.

And that someone is you, and me, and anyone else with an interest in, well, interest. The CFPB is asking for comments on two proposed versions, the result of input from more than 7,000 consumers in an earlier round of commenting. Go to www.ConsumerFinance.gov/knowbeforeyouowe to help write the fine print.

Jim Guest
President