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Consumer Action and Capital One Financial Corp., which have worked together for nearly eight years on the MoneyWi$e financial-literacy project, have brought their financial-education partnership online, says Ken McEldowney, Consumer Action executive director. The initiative includes free education materials and teaching aids along with training sessions for volunteers and community-organization staff planning to teach financial-education workshops to consumers. Now consumers and financial-literacy trainers can go online to view interactive lessons and download literature related to 11 topics, including banking basics, building good credit, identity theft and account fraud, and talking to teens about money. "Our [in-person] trainings cover a lot of the same material that's in these modules," McEldowney tells CardLine. "This is the first time we've been able to provide that type of resource on the Internet." Consumer Action staff over the years have spoken critically to lawmakers and journalists about various card-issuer practices. But several issuers and card networks, including Capital One, American Express Co., Visa Inc. and Washington Mutual Inc., also have provided financial support and participation in Consumer Action's financial-education efforts, McEldowney says. "We agree to disagree, but at the same time they recognize the importance of working with us in terms of achieving common educational goals," he adds. Cap One spokesperson Diana Don praises Consumer Action's educational work and tells CardLine the issuer wants to make the educational materials it has developed with Consumer Action available to more organizations and consumers. "We want to see that these educational models are not sitting on a shelf," she says.
