[Riot]

Do you have an American Express card? Have you had one in the past 9 years? Have you been ripped off like many AmEx consumers have been by the company?

Big Government has gone to bat for you, and you've just won

You can join the ranks of Capital One and Discover credit card abuse victims who have won, too.

And you can just say "thank you" directly to President Obama for this.

Back story: Another outstanding thing Obama has done: formed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. If you have a complaint about your credit card company, your bank, a business, etc - just go online at the website and fill out a form or give them a call. They have really done terrific work protecting consumers in the months they have existed.

They have also helped get new laws passed that make financial agreements much easier for consumers to understand before they sign. Lots of good stuff.

Elizabeth Warren, current Dem candidate for Mass. Senate against incumbent Republican Scott Brown, set it up, but the GOP wouldn't allow her to be confirmed as it's first head. They thought she was too aggressive against banks. So Richard Cordray was appointed. He's been outstanding.

BTW, the second Brown-Warren debate is tonight. Last debate Brown based nearly all his attack on his opening statement, "Elizabeth Warren doesn't look 1/16 native American", and has followed that up with attack ads that have resulted in constant complaints that he's a racist and a bully, especially after his campaign staffers were videoed singing fake "Indian chants" and doing the "Tomahawk chop" at Warren this past weekend. Various native American tribes have demanded apologies from Brown for his racist douchebaggery.

Attacking the racial composition of your opponent and making that a campaign issue is always a winner, heh, Republicans?

Warren has now surpassed Brown in the polls, and Brown has permanently lost his "I'm a nice moderate guy" image. Boom. Karma is a biotch.

But, back to how Obama and his CFPB has directly helped all you consumers ripped off by American Express:

Federal regulators hit American Express with $112.5 million in penalties

The Hill - Finance and Economy Blog
By Peter Schroeder - 10/01/12 11:30 AM ET

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is continuing to dole out penalties for bad behavior by credit card companies, joining other regulators in slamming American Express with a $112.5 million penalty.

The bureau charged the company engaged in bad behavior dating back nine years, including deceiving consumers signing up for cards, charging illegal late fees and discriminating against younger card applicants.

Now, the company has agreed to pay back $85 million to 250,000 cardholders and another $27.5 million to the government as a penalty.

"Several American Express companies violated consumer protection laws and those laws were violated at all stages of the game — from the moment a consumer shopped for a card to the moment the consumer got a phone call about long overdue debt," said CFPB Director Richard Cordray.

The settlement stemmed from a joint investigation conducted by the CFPB, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Utah Department of Financial Institutions.

The illegal activities first became apparent after a routine examination by the latter two regulators of an American Express subsidiary.

The CFPB said the credit card company violated consumer protection laws "at every stage of the consumer experience."

For example, the company deceived consumers by not giving them a $300 bonus promised with new cards.

It also used a credit scoring system that treated card applicants differently based on age, and failed to fully implement it for applicants under the age of 35 for a period of time.

The CFPB also charged that American Express subsidiaries told borrowers that if they paid off their old card debts, the company would report it to credit bureaus and it would improve their credit scores. In reality, debt repayments were not reported to the bureaus, and in some cases the debts were so old they would not have affected borrowers' credit scores anyway.

In response to the charges, American Express has agreed to fully pay back all customers affected by the illegal behavior, many being fully reimbursed with interest.

It also promised to inform borrowers if a debt is too old to affect their credit score, and submit to an independent compliance audit.

The $27.5 million penalty paid to the government is the sum total of several levied by regulators. The CFPB, FDIC, Federal Reserve, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) all joined in assessing the fines.

American Express said in a statement posted online it was cooperating fully with the regulators, and planned to notify impacted consumers as soon as possible.

This latest penalty marks the latest in a run of enforcement actions the CFPB, along with other regulators, has launched against credit card companies.

Last month, the bureau and FDIC announced a $214 million penalty for Discover Bank for employing deceptive telemarketing and sales tactics when selling credit cards.

And in July, the CFPB assessed $165 million against Capital One for deceptive marketing practices. That penalty stemmed from a joint enforcement action by the bureau and the OCC.

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