In advance of today’s effective date for most of its new mortgage rules, the CFPB has been releasing additional resources for consumers. As described in the CFPB’s January 7 press release, the most recent “resources” include sample letters for consumers to send their servicers, tip sheets, fact sheets, lists of questions and answers, and a tool to help consumers find local housing counseling agencies.
Although the resources offer helpful information, as a whole, they gloss over the details in order to give consumers a broad overview of the new rules. Much like the “fact vs. fiction guide” that we previously reported on, the new resources seek to paint the new mortgage rules in a positive light for consumers and fail to address the fact that the rules may have an adverse effect on credit availability.
Although it’s difficult to capture the complexity of the rules in short documents marketed to consumers, the generalization of these documents causes them to lose important details, which may mislead customers.