Activism
California Attorney General Joins Coalition Pushing Back on “Pay to Pay” Mortgage Fees
“Some financial service providers charge fees if a consumer decides to use a certain type of payment method, such as making a payment over the telephone, through a website, or through a third-party service,” Bonta and other attorneys general wrote in a letter they co-signed addressed to Rohit Chopra, Director, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The Hawaii Office of Consumer Protection also signed the letter.
![](https://www.postnewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/pay-to-pay-fees-featured-web.jpg)
By Antonio Ray Harvey, California Black Media
Last week, California Attorney General Rob Bonta called on the federal government to outlaw additional fees companies charge homeowners for paying their mortgages.
California is joining 20 other states and the District of Columbia in the effort.
“Some financial service providers charge fees if a consumer decides to use a certain type of payment method, such as making a payment over the telephone, through a website, or through a third-party service,” Bonta and other attorneys general wrote in a letter they co-signed addressed to Rohit Chopra, Director, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The Hawaii Office of Consumer Protection also signed the letter.
“While these type of ‘pay to pay’ fees are charged by service providers in several different markets, the issues raised by these fees are particularly insidious in the mortgage industry because, unlike most marketplaces, homeowners have no choice in their mortgage servicer,” the letter continued.
When homeowners decide to take out a mortgage, many believe that they are entering into a long-term relationship with a specific financial institution. That is not always the case, according to the California Department of Justice (DOJ).
After origination “many mortgage loans and their servicing rights are sold in secondary markets,” and could be “sold many times over the course of the loan,” the DOJ states.
“This means that homeowners don’t and can’t know who will service their mortgage loan and are therefore unable to avoid ‘pay to pay’ fees by taking their business elsewhere,” The DOJ explained.
Bonta said the problem is critical in California because the state is already facing a housing affordability problem.
“As costs of living continue to rise, the last thing Californians need is mortgage servicers taking advantage of this captive market in order to pad their bottom lines,” Bonta said. “I urge CFPB to put a stop to these abusive junk fees.”
Homeowners and renters in California struggle with the costs of housing costs and taxes. Additional fees companies tack onto payments increase those burdens on consumers in the Golden State, where only about 31% of households can afford to buy a median-priced home, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.
African American homeowners in California also potentially face increased costs due to documented discriminatory practices common in the homebuying and selling processes.
Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill (AB) 948 after several reports revealed home appraisers valued homes owned by Blacks and other minorities at much lower prices than ones owned by Whites.
Wells Fargo has come under fire more than once for its discriminatory lending and banking services. According to findings of a Bloomberg News analysis released last month, the global San Francisco-based financial services company rejected 53% of Black homeowners who applied for refinancing loans during the pandemic in 2020. It only rejected 28% of white applicants.
The board of the California-Hawaii State Conference of the NAACP met this weekend to discuss Wells Fargo’s record on providing its services to African American customers.
Among the country’s major lenders, Wells Fargo’s gap between Whites and Blacks the company approved for loans was the widest.
According to Zillow’s Consumer Housing Trends Report released last year, Black and other minority renters pay more in application fees and security deposits when renting apartments. They also fill out more rental applications, on average, before finding a place to live than white renters.
The multi-state coalition’s letter says, “There is no uniformity in convenience fees among mortgage servicers. Some charge them and some don’t.”
And the charges can add up.
For example, the letter spotlights one servicer that currently charges its borrowers $7.50 to make an online payment or pay via telephone through an automated service. If consumers want to speak to a live operator to make their payment, they will be charged $17.50.
Based out of New Jersey, the mortgage company that provides this service calls the process “SpeedPay,” which is one of the “one-time payment options” that a borrower may use to make his or her monthly mortgage payment, as stated on the company’s website.
States joining the initiative are Illinois, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Washington.
Bonta agrees, adding that the payments are “one example of junk fees charged to consumers in a multitude of financial products and services” offered by some banks, credit card companies, pre-paid debit card providers and others.
“For struggling homeowners trying to make their monthly mortgage payment, ‘pay to pay’ fees only rub salt in the wound,” said the California Attorney General.
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of July 24 – 30, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 24 – 30, 2024
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Activism
Oakland Post: Week of July 17 -23, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 17 -23, 2024
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Activism
Community Celebrates Historic Oakland Billboard Agreements
We, the Oakland Billboard Economic Development Coalition, which includes Oakland’s six leading community health clinics, all ethnic chambers of commerce, and top community-based economic development organizations – celebrate the historic billboard agreements approved last year by the Oakland City Council. We have fought for this opportunity against the billboard monopoly, against Clear Channel, for five years. The agreements approved by Council set the bar for community benefits – nearly $70 Million over their lifetime, more than 23 times the total paid by all previous Clear Channel relocation agreements in Oakland combined.
![The Oakland Billboard Economic Development Coalition.](https://www.postnewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/economic-development-corporation-featured-web.jpg)
Grand Jury Report Incorrect – Council & Community Benefit
We, the Oakland Billboard Economic Development Coalition, which includes Oakland’s six leading community health clinics, all ethnic chambers of commerce, and top community-based economic development organizations – celebrate the historic billboard agreements approved last year by the Oakland City Council. We have fought for this opportunity against the billboard monopoly, against Clear Channel, for five years. The agreements approved by Council set the bar for community benefits – nearly $70 Million over their lifetime, more than 23 times the total paid by all previous Clear Channel relocation agreements in Oakland combined.
Unfortunately, a recent flawed Grand Jury report got it wrong, so we feel compelled to correct the record:
- Regarding the claim that the decision was made hastily, the report itself belies that claim. The process was five years in the making, with two and a half years from the first City Council hearing to the final vote. Along the way, as the report describes, there were multiple Planning Commission hearings, public stakeholder outreach meetings, a Council Committee meeting, and then a vote by the full Council. Not only was this not hasty, it had far more scrutiny than any of the previous relocation agreements approved by the City with Clear Channel, all of which provide 1/23 of the benefits of the Becker/OFI agreements approved by the Council.
- More importantly, the agreements will actually bring millions to the City and community, nearly $70M to be exact, 23 times the previous Clear Channel relocation agreements combined. They certainly will not cost the city money, especially since nothing would have been on the table at all if our Coalition had not been fighting for it. Right before the decisive City Council Committee hearing, in the final weeks before the full Council vote, there was a hastily submitted last-minute “proposal” by Clear Channel that was debunked as based on non-legal and non-economically viable sites, and relying entirely on the endorsement of a consultant that boasts Clear Channel as their biggest client and whose decisions map to Clear Channel’s monopolistic interests all over the country. Some City staff believed these unrealistic numbers based on false premises, and, since they only interviewed City staff, the Grand Jury report reiterated this misinformation, but it was just part of Clear Channel’s tried and true monopolistic practices of seeking to derail agreements that actually set the new standard for billboard community benefits. Furthermore, our proposals are not mutually exclusive – if Clear Channel’s proposal was real, why had they not brought it forward previously? Why have they not brought it forward since? Because it was not a real proposal – it was nothing but smoke and mirrors, as the Clear Channel’s former Vice President stated publicly at Council.
Speaking on behalf of the community health clinics that are the primary beneficiaries of the billboard funding, La Clinica de la Raza CEO Jane Garcia, states: “In this case, the City Council did the right thing – listening to the community that fought for five years to create this opportunity that is offering the City and community more than twenty times what previous billboard relocation agreements have offered.”
Oakland Billboard Economic Development Coalition
Native American Health Center | La Clínica de la Raza | West Oakland Health Center |
Asian Health Services | Oakland LGBTQ Center | Roots Community Health Center |
The Unity Council | Black Cultural Zone | Visit Oakland |
Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce | Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce | Oakland Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce |
Oakland Latino Chamber of Commerce | Building Trades of Alameda County | (partial list) |
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