Banks Behaving Badly (All Consumerist Edition)

I haven’t posted one of these in a while and the unlinked links are starting to pile up around here. The bad behavior of banks is a steady, relentless topic, and if you don’t keep on top of it, you’ll quickly get swamped.

So let me take this chance to commend The Consumerist — a dynamite site that pushes hard in the direction of leveling the playing field between “consumers” and all the corporations, marketeers, con-artists, corporate tools and various other anti-worker, anti-customer, anti-human Powers That Be arrayed against them.

Consumerist has two bloggers who do a terrific job covering the bank & finance beat: Chris Morran and Mary Beth Quirk. They provide a valuable service by relaying the latest reporting on the bad behavior of banks, supplemented with sharp commentary and some original reporting of their own. “Banks Behaving Badly” encompasses a vast universe of sleazy, criminal and predatory misdeeds — from international rate-rigging to absurd new nickel-and-dime fees. This duo from Consumerist keeps an eye on all parts of that — the criminal conspiracies and the petty larcenies.

Here’s where I tell you to bookmark The Consumerist and to subscribe to their RSS feed.

And below is where I back up that suggestion by sharing a sampling of recent posts from Morran and Quirk.

Chris Morran:

“L.A. Sues U.S. Bank for Letting Foreclosures Fall Into Disrepair”

“Why Do So Many Servicemembers Not Receive Mortgage Protections They Have Legal Right To?”

“FDIC: There Is No Such Thing as an ‘FDIC Fee’ to Bank Customers”

“Lawsuit: I Listened to Chase About My Mortgage and Ended up With No House and a Dead Husband”

“Big Banks Reaping Big Benefits From HARP Refinances”

“Woman Forcibly Removed From Home, in Spite of Restraining Order Against Citibank”

Mary Beth Quirk:

“Chase Ordered to Pay $100M to Credit Card Customers for Boosting Minimum Payments”

“HSBC Executive Apologizes for Lax Controls That Allowed Mexican Drug Cartels to Launder Money”