A True Consumer Advocacy Initiative

The FoolProof Initiative provides consumers tough, unique, interactive financial literacy and consumer information programs.

The power of those programs comes from the independent nature of FoolProof itself:

We are consumer advocates. FoolProof's job is to provide straightforward, no-nonsense information. We don't do infomercial.

FoolProof is endorsed by the Consumer Federation of America, the National Association of Consumer Advocates, and the CARE Program.

FoolProof's relationship with credit unions: FoolProof provides its programs for free to all consumers, credit union members or not, through credit union websites. We believe good credit unions offer consumers a unique and ethical banking environment.

But credit unions provide FoolProof an outlet for our programs. They do not contribute to or influence FoolProof's messages.

We tell potential sponsoring credit unions that FoolProof's job isn't to push product or service. Our job is to advocate for their members. We do not write stories or change stories to "fit" any particular credit union need or objective.

At times, our advocacy means FoolProof takes stances against the practices of virtually all financial institutions (including credit unions).

Take BMA: for instance, FoolProof strongly opposes Binding Mandatory Arbitration (BMA) clauses. Virtually all banks, and some credit unions (those that have sold their credit card portfolios to banks) have these clauses in their credit cards.

Take credit cards: FoolProof also takes a strong stance against the way virtually all credit card advertisements push credit cards and credit card debt. The programs normally don't say the most important thing about credit cards: you should always try to pay off your card balance in full every month. A credit card company can't say that message strongly and clearly. The card companies would go broke if all their customers actually paid off their balances.

That's why credit card companies--including those from banks and credit unions--push all consumers to charge more than we can afford to pay off every month. The companies want us to finance our purchases.

But what's good for the company in this instance isn't good for the consumer.

These FoolProof videos tackle the issue:

Credit card companies always push you to borrow more!

And here's what we tell consumers to do once they get a credit card:

Pay your credit card bill in full every month!

FoolProof's key message to credit unions is designed to encourage them to be even stronger in consumer advocacy than they may be at present. We tell them that true consumer advocacy will continue to differentiate them from other financial institutions.