Large card issuers began closing or reforming their debt protection programs following a series of sanctions imposed by the GFPb starting in 2012. The office ordered a dozen companies to pay $2.8 billion in refunds for registration of people who did not want programs or who were not entitled to benefits. Costly Protection Debt protection is an insurance-type program, also known as debt payment or cancellation protection. It calculates a monthly tax based on a percentage of the end-of-month balance. It must cover the minimum payment if you have a „qualifying event“ such as job loss or medical disability – and you can prove it. Some programs remove balance in specific and well-defined circumstances. Vigeland: And I want to take you back to something you said earlier, which is, it`s something where we have all the credit cards, the debit cards, the sticker on the front that says, „You have to call this number to activate the card.“ In some of these situations, when you call that number, you don`t really do it because you have to activate a card — that`s so they can try to sell you something. Why are debt protection problems not dwindling? Only a fraction of the complaints published by the GFPB contain an explanation of the problem by the consumer, so the details remain unclear. But the few explanations available provide clues as to the cause of the problems.

An advantage in the complaint data is a high reimbursement rate – 25 per cent – for people who file complaints with the GFPB regarding debt protection programs. For example, the Connecticut cardholder, surprised to have paid hundreds of dollars for Synchrony`s card security program, received „monetary relief“ in the terminology of the complaint data. The records do not say whether she recovered all the fees she had paid. See Related:7 Questions you need to ask before buying credit card payment protection, banks that refund add-on products, 7 ways to protect your creditworthiness during unemployment Only looked at the Walmart card as I saw no extra charges. Sullivan: I don`t want to tell a consumer not to call the number on the stickers they receive from credit card companies, because it`s usually a good security policy. But here we have a company that will shake up these waters and risk harming the end of the safety measure.