Military Allotment Processor Must Refund Servicemembers $3.1M For Charging Hidden Fees

[douglas9]

A company aimed at preserving the financial well-being of deployed servicemembers by processing payments to creditors on the consumers’ behalf instead contributed to customers’ financial distress by charging millions of dollars in hidden fees, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau alleges in a new complaint.

The CFPB announced today that Kentucky-based Fort Knox National Company and its subsidiary must provide $3.1 million in redress to servicemembers for allegedly unfairly and deceptively charging consumers fees for payment services.

According to the CFPB complaint [PDF], Fort Knox National Company and its subsidiary Military Assistance Company (MAC) acted as one of the largest third-party processors of military allotments – which allow servicemembers to deduct payments directly from their earnings to be used to send money home to their families and pay their creditors.

From 2010 to 2014, the CFPB alleges that Fort Knox National and MAC routinely enrolled servicemembers into its military allotment processor without adequately disclosing the fees and then charged the servicemembers without telling them.

http://consumerist.com/2015/04/20/military-allotment-processor-must-refund-servicemembers-3-1m-for-charging-hidden-fees/

[Faux pas]

1. No words

[kacekwl]

2. This is how the

exceptional patriots take care of our military personnel.

[denbot]

3. This is what Bush III is angling for by advocating privatizing the VA.

Just another way for the Bush's and their cronies to fleece another segment of the population.

[white cloud]

4. Yep more Hicken Hawks (Bush)

Washington (CNN)—Jeb Bush's effort as governor to partially privatize veterans health care services in Florida went so poorly it was ended shortly after Bush left office.

That hasn't stopped the former Republican governor, now in the early stages of running for president, from arguing veterans should be given the choice to see a public or private doctor, with either visit being paid for by the government.

"All of these government programs should shift to the person who's receiving the benefit and they should be empowered to have more choices, rather than be told what line you get into," Bush said recently in New Hampshire.

In 2014, after a CNN investigation uncovered that veterans had died waiting for medical care, Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed into law a bill that gives veterans more access to private care if they suffer long wait times for appointments.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/01/politics/jeb-bush-veterans-benefits/