March 3, 2025 Editor, The News-Gazette: Right before Christmas, I opened my credit card statement and just about had a heart attack. The total bill was thousands of dollars higher than I was expecting. After a moment of panic, I looked more closely: Two charges totaling $3,564 at Metal Supermarket in Beltsville, Md. Safe to say, no one in my family buys metal in bulk.
When I called my credit card company, it was clear that they saw this kind of thing every day. They told me to deduct the fraudulent charges from the bill, pay the rest, and let them handle the investigation. In a few minutes, Christmas was saved.
In the past there would have been no assurance that things would have gone this way. Before the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created in 2012, credit card companies regularly stalled on investigating fraudulent charges, insisted that customers pay first and get reimbursed later, and routinely denied claims without any investigation. The CFPB created and enforced the rules that have prevented big financial services companies from leaving us regular consumers holding the bag. I, for one, am very grateful for that.
On Feb. 7, Elon Musk tweeted, “CFPB RIP.” In less than a month, the CFPB’s director and more than 200 employees were fired, its offices shuttered, its budget zeroed out, and all investigations suspended. So now we are heading back to the days when we had to spend hours on the phone wrestling with an agent in hopes of getting fraudulent charges wiped away.
How does this make sense? We live in a world where it’s easier than ever to fall victim to cyber theft and online scams. Now that the CFPB is dismantled, as one observer noted, “it’s open season on everyone who has a credit card, a mortgage, a car loan, a payday loan, a student loan, or uses an online financial app.” That’s pretty much all of us.
You may be all for efficiency in government. Is this what you really want?
STEPHANIE WILKINSON Lexington
