Personal finance company Credit Karma is focusing on helping consumers understand financial resources available to them amid the COVID-19 crisis, CEO Kenneth Lin told Cheddar Thursday.
Lin said the company is tracking both government and private aid to help keep its customers informed.
"When there are forgiveness programs, we want to make sure consumers are out in front of them and know that they're available to help them," he said. "One of the things we're trying to understand, and assessing, is can we track all of the programs that are available."
Lin said he expects dozens, if not hundreds, of programs "for the average consumer" and said it will be "a big challenge" weeding through them in order to find the ones its customers will qualify for.
Credit Karma, founded in 2007 and "born in the last recession," according to Lin, is seeing more usage and engagement, even as the economy falters and unemployment claims continue to rise.
"What we are seeing across the industry is more consumers are looking for personal loans… more and more people are looking for mortgages," he said, though Lin said there aren't enough people in call centers or appraisers to get users through the processes.
"So, while rates are low, the system is somewhat frozen," he said.
About 780,000 pressure washers sold at retailers like Home Depot are being recalled across the U.S. and Canada, due to a projectile hazard that has resulted in fractures and other injuries among some consumers.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
Ford is recalling more than 355,000 of its pickup trucks across the U.S. because of an instrument panel display failure that’s resulted in critical information, like warning lights and vehicle speed, not showing up on the dashboard.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
