NPR is reporting that the Military Lending Act (MLA) is under attack. The MLA is designed to protect military members from being ripped off in financial transactions like buying a car. However, the National Automobile Dealers Association has been working with the Trump Administration to allow dealers to again sell worthless “gap insurance” when they sell cars to service members.
Gap insurance provides coverage for that amount between what you might owe on a car and what it is worth. But it is available for less than $50 from the owner’s insurance company and is a ripoff when rolled into a finance package with a $1,500 price tag.
You can read more in White House Takes Aim At Financial Protections For Military.
The article says, “NPR has obtained documents that show the White House is proposing changes that critics say would leave service members vulnerable to getting ripped off when they buy cars. Separately, the administration is taking broader steps to roll back enforcement of the Military Lending Act.”
“Meanwhile, critics say that another change in the works would more broadly weaken the enforcement of the Military Lending Act. It involves Mick Mulvaney, the Trump administration’s acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Under Mulvaney, the bureau is planning to halt regular monitoring of payday lenders and other firms to see whether they are violating the act and cheating military personnel.”
