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MEDIA ADVISORY

Veterans Financial Coalition Welcomes Three New Organizations

Group Serving Veterans Grows To Eight Members

Washington, DC – November 12, 2014 – The Veterans Financial Coalition, a diverse group of organizations seeking to serve the needs and unique financial challenges military veterans face when returning to civilian life, welcomed three new members today. Call For Action, the National Consumers League (NCL) and the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) will join the Coalition's founding members, the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education® (AFCPE®), Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and Visa Inc. These organizations bring unique and important assets and initiatives that will strengthen the coalition and its mission of improving the financial security and wellbeing of our nation's growing population of veterans.

The Veterans Financial Coalition has three goals: educate veterans and the community organizations that serve them; conduct research regarding enhanced consumer protections for veterans; and raise awareness for veterans' financial needs. The new members bring resources focused on helping veterans with consumer complaints, learning how to spot fraud, and identifying and overcoming financial issues.

Call For Action has a network of local chapters a consumer complaint service and hotlines to help veterans, among a number of other resources. Veterans can utilize Call For Action's direct consumer mediation services for any consumer issue. Veterans can find a local Call For Action by visiting the website www.callforaction.org.

"Call For Action is proud to support the empowerment of our veterans by joining this important coalition," said Eduard Bartholme, Executive Director of Call For Action. Since veterans are often targeted in the financial services marketplace, education is an important first step in teaching them how to avoid these potential pitfalls. If a problem does arise, our network of volunteer- staffed consumer help hotlines is ready to assist."

National Consumers League brings the strength of its well established Fraud.org resource to help veterans learn the warning signs of common scams and how to avoid losing money to fraudsters. Thousands of consumer complaints are collected from over 100,000 monthly visitors to Fraud.org and shared with their network of more than 90 law enforcement partners. Fraud can be reporting by visiting the Fraud.org complaint form and FakeChecks.org can help veterans learn to spot the signs of fake checks.

"As a longstanding watchdog and advocate for consumer literacy, the National Consumers League is proud to ally with The Veterans Financial Coalition and its partners," said Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director. "Our programs seek to offer support and education for helping consumers navigate the marketplace at all stages of life, so partnering to bolster the financial literacy of those who have served our country is a natural fit. We are delighted to be a part of this effort.

The National Foundation for Credit Counseling's "Sharpen your Financial Focus" program seeks to assist veterans in stabilizing their personal financial situation. The program helps veterans identify their most pressing financial issue, and customize a three step program that will put them on a path to financial stability. More information is available at www.SharpenToday.org.

"The National Foundation for Credit Counseling has a long history of helping veterans avoid financial pitfalls or recover from them," said Susan C. Keating, president and CEO of the NFCC. "Being part of The Veterans Financial Coalition underscores that commitment, and expands the opportunity for our member agencies to provide financial education and solutions to those who have served our country. There is something fundamentally wrong with a United States Armed Services veteran being in financial distress. They were there when we needed them; now it's our turn to give back. We look forward to working with veterans to find solutions to their personal finance concerns, solutions that will lead to long-term financial stability."

www.VeteransFinancialCoalition.org is a clearinghouse of important personal finance resources provided by coalition members. The website serves as a hub of free resources, ranging from educational games and guides, consumer protection brochures, training program information, and research.