Making It Easier to Cancel Services
This new initiative is a multi-agency effort to target corporations that make it timely and difficult for consumers to receive refunds and cancellations.
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The White House has explained that these corporations make it incredibly burdensome for consumers to change their services or get the refunds they deserve.
Why Do Corporations Do This?
According to Biden’s administration, many corporations do this simply because they’re seeking to maximize their profits.
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If they make it harder for consumers to get refunds or successfully cancel services, then they can keep receiving money from these customers.
An Easy Way to Sign Up
White House domestic policy advisor Neera Tanden spoke to reporters about this new effort by the administration, stating that many Americans can relate to these issues.
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“For example, you want to cancel your gym membership or subscription service or newspaper. It took one or two clicks to sign up. But now … you have to go in person, or wait on hold for 20 minutes … just to opt out,” she explained.
Making It Difficult for the Consumer
Tanden further stated that these efforts make it incredibly difficult for the consumer — and the White House wants to change this.
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Tanden said, “In all of these practices, the companies are delaying services to you, or really trying to make it so difficult for you to cancel the service, that they get to hold on to your money for longer and longer.”
The ‘Time Is Money’ Initiative
This new effort has been coined the “Time Is Money” initiative. The White House will put forth ways corporations will stop making things hard on consumers when it comes to canceling services.
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This work comes as the Biden administration continues to have longstanding consumer protection efforts to help many Americans, according to analysts.
How This Could Help Americans
There are many ways this new White House initiative could end up making life easier for Americans.
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The initiative is tasked to help make it easier for consumers to get refunds, cancel subscriptions, submit forms for insurance and health care online, as well as receive high-quality customer service access.
Other Administration Efforts
This White House announcement also came during a series of other Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) efforts.
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All of these moves are designed to help consumers in a variety of different ways. For example, one initiative is designed to stop the use of ineffective chatbots being run by financial institutions.
Click to Cancel Proposals
The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) has also subsequently announced making it easier for consumers to “click to cancel”, especially if they simply click a button when signing up for a service.
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This plan requires corporations to make it as easy to cancel subscriptions as it is to sign up for these memberships.
Biden’s Ongoing Efforts to Protect Consumers
These latest announcements are the Biden administration’s newest efforts to aggressively protect consumers, something that Biden has done since becoming president.
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These initiatives also do not have to be approved by Congress. As Republicans currently control the House, there is an unlikely chance that this type of initiative wouldn’t have passed.
Could This Help Kamala Harris?
Some analysts have already pointed out that this White House move could end up helping Vice President Kamala Harris in her run for the White House come November.
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Later this week, Harris is set to reveal her own economic policy plans for her presidential campaign.
Continuing Biden’s Efforts
These analysts have explained that Harris could use these Biden administration efforts towards her own policy agenda during her presidential campaign.
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Plus, she could carry these efforts forth into the near future if she indeed wins the White House and defeats former President Donald Trump in November’s presidential election.