Financial False Promises
Affordability and cost-of-living concerns remain top of mind for many Americans. Despite a positive outlook for 2026, AFSA’s Consumer Credit Conditions (C3) Index for the third quarter of 2025 revealed ongoing concern among lenders and consumers with a deteriorating labor market conditions and ongoing inflation.
Through all of this, AFSA members continue to provide safe and affordable financial products to consumers tailored to their needs, whether to purchase or lease a vehicle or to cover everyday expenses.
Unfortunately, in economic downcycles many Americans seeking economic relief turn to questionable financial services, such as credit repair organizations and debt settlement companies that deceive consumers with false financial promises. The FTC and other financial regulators have issued a number “consumer alerts” highlighting these questionable practices. You can review many of them here.
Credit repair organizations and debt settlement companies create affordability problems for many Americans by charging for services consumers can easily at no cost, and without damaging their credit score or adding more unnecessary household debt.
To help address affordability concerns, AFSA supports bipartisan credit repair scam legislation, HR 306, the Ending Credit Repair Scams Act, which protects consumers from credit repair organizations that falsely promise to rebuild their credit history while charging expensive monthly fees.
AFSA also urges Congress to introduce legislation to improve transparency and accountability in the debt settlement industry and its affiliates, which cost families billions each year and push consumers into more serious delinquency.
January 22nd, 2026