--- title: White House Takes Aim at ‘Corporate Tricks’ That Waste People’s Time and Money description: Federal agencies are targeting practices that push consumers to fill out excess paperwork, jump through hoops to cancel subscriptions and more. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and more than a dozen local and regional newspapers. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 498 covers: - Personal Finance - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ editors: - name: Kaitlin Mulhere role: Editor url: https://money.com/author/kaitlin-mulhere/ bio: Kaitlin Mulhere has been covering the intersection of college and personal finance since 2015. She enjoys breaking down the complexities of college costs and financial aid, and she also runs Money’s Best Colleges. education: University of Florida at_money_since: 2015 articles: 217 covers: - Personal Finance - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://twitter.com/KMulhere - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaitlin-mulhere-64503048/ published: '2024-08-12T12:01:01.000Z' modified: '2024-08-12T14:06:16.000Z' section: Personal Finance word_count: 852 canonical: https://money.com/biden-rules-customer-service-hassles/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Photo illustration of a person having a hard time trying to reach customer service](https://img.money.com/2024/08/News-Biden-Administration-Target-Customer-Service-Scams-Cost-Time-Money.jpg) The Biden administration is taking sweeping actions to combat what it calls “corporate tricks and scams” that waste people’s time and money. The White House announced Monday the roll out of its new “Time Is Money” initiative, which is a collection of regulatory rules across several federal agencies as well as a host of new industry guidelines that corporations can choose to implement. “The administration is cracking down on all the ways that companies — through paperwork, hold times and general aggravation — waste people's time and then really hold on to their money,” Neera Tanden, director of the White House’s Domestic Policy Council, told reporters during a press briefing. “I think we can all relate to this,” she added. “It happens to Americans every day.” The White House did not provide an exact timeline of when these measures would go into effect, though senior administration officials did say that no Congressional action is necessary to move forward. Some of the proposals would, however, need to undergo official rulemaking processes, which require rounds of public input and negotiations that typically take a year or longer. Some of the initiatives that don’t require new administrative rules could be implemented sooner. ## Protect yourself from the threat of Identity Theft ### With comprehensive and affordable Identity Theft Protection software, Aura will secure your personal information. Click your state to get the protection you deserve. [View Plans](https://money.com/pr/ic5fc45d4cf6?ap_referrer=%2Fbiden-rules-customer-service-hassles%2F) ## An end to ‘doom loop’ phone calls and fake review scams? In particular, White House officials underscored the hassle of being stuck on “doom loop” calls when trying to get assistance from a company. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is crafting a new rule to require companies under its jurisdiction to give callers better access to live customer-service agents, instead of letting callers languish on the phone line and get bounced around by automated answering systems. Other federal agencies are coordinating with companies outside the financial-services industry to make similar changes without the use of an official rule. Similarly, Tanden said companies often make it difficult to cancel services in hopes that people will lose patience and keep paying. “It took one or two clicks to sign up, but now to end your subscription or cancel the membership, you have to go in person or wait on hold for 20 minutes, 30 minutes,” she said. A forthcoming rule from the Federal Trade Commission, dubbed "click to cancel," aims to make it as easy to cancel a subscription as it was to sign up across most consumer-facing industries. A mirroring rule announced Monday from the Federal Communications Commission would do much the same for phone, internet and cable companies. Another new rule from the FTC, if enacted, would curb companies from using [fake review scams](https://money.com/fake-amazon-reviews/). These scams, prevalent on e-commerce sites like Amazon, often bury negative reviews on products or services, fabricate positive reviews or employ similar methods that mislead consumers into buying something that doesn’t match the description or review ratings. Online shopping and review scams are the second largest category of fraud reported to the FTC so far this year. In the first half of 2024, the the agency received over 170,000 complaints from consumers across the country, and 78% of them said they lost at least some money due to the issue. The typical loss equates to $128 per person. ## Make sure that you're protected when shopping online ### Aura can provide peace of mind so you can shop online without any worries. Click below to get protected today! [View Plans](https://money.com/pr/pcdb23016574?ap_referrer=%2Fbiden-rules-customer-service-hassles%2F) ## Efforts to reduce health insurance bureaucracy Time-consuming practices in the health insurance industry are also in the crosshairs of the “Time Is Money” initiative. “You want to file a health insurance claim, but the companies make it hard to find the form,” Tanden said. “When you do, you have to physically print it out, find an envelope and stamp and mail it in.” To streamline the insurance claims and reimbursement process, the departments of Labor and Health and Human Services are calling on health insurance companies to allow patients to submit health claims online and to generally improve people’s experience with the health insurance industry. The idea is to convince certain industries to make the improvements themselves without the need for official regulations or legislation, and the federal government has had some recent success taking this peer-pressure approach. For example, as part of the now-defunct [Affordable Connectivity Program](https://money.com/free-internet-discount-acp-ending/), the FCC worked with several internet service providers to offer new, low-cost plans, so that people who received a government subsidy could effectively get broadband at no out-of-pocket cost. And recently, the Department of Transportation secured commitments from 10 major airlines to allow families with young kids to sit together without an upcharge. As part of the Biden administration's war on “[junk fees](https://money.com/biden-ban-junk-fees-banks-hotels/),” the transportation agency also enacted a rule in April that [requires airlines to automatically reimburse passengers](https://money.com/airline-refund-canceled-flights-rule/) for certain delays and flight cancellations. The crackdown on junk fees is a similar but separate effort from the "Time Is Money" rules, and its main goal is to eliminate shady pricing practices and hidden charges across just about all consumer-facing industries, including [overdraft fees](https://money.com/overdraft-fees-banks-cfpb/), [event-ticket surcharges](https://money.com/ticketmaster-live-nation-lawsuit-ticket-prices/), unexpected hotel fees at check out, [financial advisor commissions](https://money.com/biden-junk-fee-retirement-advisors/) and more. “Americans are tired of being played for suckers,” Tanden said. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/biden-rules-customer-service-hassles/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Personal Finance", "item": "https://money.com/personal-finance/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "White House Takes Aim at ‘Corporate Tricks’ That Waste People’s Time and Money" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/biden-rules-customer-service-hassles/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/biden-rules-customer-service-hassles/", "name": "White House Takes Aim at ‘Corporate Tricks’ That Waste People’s Time and Money", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2024-08-12T12:01:01.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/biden-rules-customer-service-hassles/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/biden-rules-customer-service-hassles/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-08-12T14:06:16.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "White House Takes Aim at ‘Corporate Tricks’ That Waste People’s Time and Money", "articleSection": "Personal Finance", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2024/08/News-Biden-Administration-Target-Customer-Service-Scams-Cost-Time-Money.jpg", "width": 2880, "height": 1920, "caption": "News-Biden-Administration-Target-Customer-Service-Scams-Cost-Time-Money" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Adam Hardy", "url": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/#author", "description": "Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. 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