Archive snipet:
Household International Drops Practice of Selling Single-Premium Credit Insurance!
ACORN’s Campaign Against Household Goes On, July 2001
ACORN has won an important victory in our campaign against Household Finance’s predatory lending practices, and we intend to continue the fight until Household has taken additional crucial steps. After almost a year of ACORN efforts focused on this lender, Household Finance announced on July 11 that it will discontinue the sale of single-premium credit insurance with real-estate-secured loans. As Household was the most visible and largest remaining hold out in continuing to sell this insurance, the announcement likely spells the death knell of this product, which has cost borrowers untold millions in stolen equity, and is thus a major step forward.
Household Finance is among the largest subprime lenders in the country, and among the most abusive. Aggressive and deceptive sales of single-premium credit insurance have been one repeated feature of its loans, and a repeated target of our attack; ending such sales is a crucial piece of the proposal for reform, which we have presented to Household both in writing and in discussions. Unfortunately, Household’s sale of single-premium insurance has also been a part of a much broader pattern of abuses, which includes:
- Misrepresenting loan terms, conditions, and payments, to convince borrowers to refinance, when these refinancings leave the borrowers worse off in every way than they were before.
- Charging outrageous rates and fees, even to borrowers with excellent credit.
- Trapping borrowers in high-cost Household loans by making ‘packages’ of two loans, with the second often at interest rates well over 20percent, which together, along with included points, fees, and credit insurance, total more than the value of the home. However good their credit, borrowers are then effectively prevented from refinancing into loans at better terms.
- Including large prepayment penalties, mandatory arbitration clauses, and other abusive terms.
As hundreds of borrowers with abusive Household loans have become part of our organization and joined with other community members and leaders, ACORN’s campaign to push Household to change its lending practices has been far reaching, and this move on credit insurance clearly comes as a result. At the same time, Household would not have made this shift right now had it not been for Citigroup’s recent announcement on ending credit insurance sales, itself the result of major pressure on that giant lender by organizations around the country, including the Coalition for Responsible Lending in North Carolina, the Greenlining Institute, the California Reinvestment Coalition, Inner City Press, and others too numerous to name.
ACORN’s campaign to push Household to change its practices has included a shareholder strategy, which included demonstrating at the company’s shareholder meeting in Tampa Florida. Along with our presence outside the meeting, we supported a shareholder resolution on predatory lending sponsored by Responsible Wealth and United for a Fair Economy, and were able to have an ACORN leader speak to this inside the meeting, thanks to Domini Social Investments’ willingness to let us use their proxy. The resolution, which asked that executive compensation be tied to efforts to combat predatory lending, garnered more than 4 percent of the vote; this is considered a very high level of support for such a resolution the first time out, and guarantees that it will be on the proxy statement again next year.
We have also been working with city councils and other elected bodies to support divestment from Household until and unless the company changes its practices. These efforts were kicked off by the passage of a resolution to this effect in St. Louis, which has now been joined by Los Angeles, and Chelsea (MA), with many more such resolutions underway. In a similar vein, ACORN moved New York City Comptroller Hevesi, as controlling trustee of the City’s giant pension and retirement funds to add his voice to the demands that Household cease predatory practices. At the same time, we have worked with local labor bodies, and with the AFL-CIO to use Labor’s power, both as pension fund managers, and through its business relationship with Household through the Union Privilege credit card program, to put additional pressure on the company. Working with ACORN, local labor bodies from Louisiana to Philadelphia have passed resolutions and written letters urging Household to change.
Still closer to the ground, ACORN’s campaign has included repeated direct actions targeting Household’s offices in more than 25 cities around the country, and at central locations like Household’s government affairs office in Washington, DC; neighborhood outreach to warn people about Household loans; and a media strategy that has resulted in extensive print, radio, and TV coverage of Household as an abusive lender, in cities from Minneapolis, to Boston, to Phoenix, to Sacramento and more. ACORN has also submitted complaints to state bank regulators and attorneys general in more than 10 States. And we have stepped up the pressure by targeting Household business partners like Best Buy - by warning that company’s shoppers that their names and credit information are made available to Household, which then solicits them for its high cost loans.
Our struggle to push Household to change its abusive lending has been a part of our broader fight against predatory lending, both contributing to and taking strength from our work to win legislative and regulatory changes. Household has been among the most active opponents of the antipredatory lending legislation we fought for and won in Philadelphia, and are poised to win in Oakland, and of the legislation we, along with allies including the AARP, are promoting in California and New York. These fights, too, have helped keep up the pressure for change on this company.
Again, we are extremely pleased that our members’ work means that going forward borrowers will no longer face this abuse from Household. At the same time, Household’s abusive practices will continue to rob homeowners of countless millions until the company makes additional changes, and we are extremely troubled by the suggestion made by some advocates that this change in policy alone makes Household a responsible lender.
For more information, contact Lisa Donner at acorncampaign@acorn.org or (718) 246-7900.
Archive snipets, Economic stimulous package?? This was ACORN? The school system in Little Rock where this Janet Miles works just hosted a group of Rwandan students. Bill Clinton holds an honorary Rwandan citizenship:
Dec. 4, 2001:
ACORN DEMANDS REFORM OF WELFARE REFORM - On Nov. 26, Little Rock ACORN Member Janet Miles spoke at a national U.S. Health and Human Services listening session in Philadelphia. Miles is a recent welfare recipient, and she described to Assistant Secretary for Children and Families Wade Horn the problems she has seen with the recent “reform” of welfare. ACORN is working with the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support to insist that significant improvements be made when Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is reauthorized next year. Miles told HHS that welfare recipients who are trying to find stable employment and are complying with all TANF requirements should be assisted with transportation and childcare and must not have their benefits cut off. Already, nationwide, 120,000 families have had their benefits cut or ended because of time limits. ACORN is asking people to urge their Congress members to eliminate time limits on TANF! To listen to New York ACORN Executive Director Bertha Lewis discuss welfare time limits on WNYC Radio, link to
http://web.archive.org/web/20011216204820/http://www.acorn.org/acorn10/otheracornwork/clips.htm. For more information, contact Chris Saffert at legnatacorn@acorn.org or 202-547-2500.
Dec. 4, 2001:
SACRAMENTO PUSHES ANTI-SPRAWL LEGISLATION - Sacramento ACORN and allies on Nov. 28 announced the formation of a new coalition called Sacramento Valley Residents for Regional Solutions, a group that has collected more than 75 letters of endorsement in only six weeks for a cutting edge state bill that would limit urban sprawl in the Sacramento region. The coalition unites neighborhood groups, environmentalists, housing organizations, small businesses, and labor to push for a regional solution to sprawl. AB 680, sponsored by Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg, would redistribute new sales tax in the six county Sacramento region in a manner that promotes smart growth, increases equity in the region, and fosters cooperation. The two-year bill must pass out of the Assembly by the end of January. For more information, contact Brian Kettenring at caacornsaro@acorn.org or 916-247-8231.
Nov. 20, 2001:
ACORN CONTINUES TO PUSH FOR ECONOMIC STIMULUS PACKAGE - ACORN is urging Congress to pass an economic stimulus package directed at low- and moderate-income Americans, and (in contrast to some of the corporate welfare proposals under consideration) at actually stimulating the economy. ACORN members in several cities staged events to gain attention for this issue on Nov. 13. For more information, link to
http://web.archive.org/web/20011216204820/http://www.acorn.org/acorn10/otheracornwork/releases.htm or contact Chris Saffert at legnatacorn@acorn.org or 202-547-2500.