Military

Camp Pendleton Glad Holly Petraeus Appointed As Financial Watchdog

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published January 10, 2011 at 3:00 AM PST

This story was published more than 13 years ago.

Holly Petraeus Appointed As Financial Watchdog

Camp Pendleton officials say the appointment of Holly Petreaus as a consumer watchdog for military families is an important step in a battle to defeat scammers who target Marines.

Holly Petraeus, wife of David Petraeus, has been appointed to head a new consumer protection agency to protect military families from financial scams. Camp Pendleton officials see this as an important step in a battle to defeat scammers who target Marines.

Mike Hire of the Navy Marine Corps Relief Society on base said because the military get a steady paycheck, they are often targeted by financial scammers. Marines fell pray to payday loan stores, which can charge up to a 1000 percent interest annually.

But he said, four years ago, federal legislation prohibited payday loan operators from charging active duty military or their families more than 36 percent. He said before the change in the law, about half the people he saw every day – about 10 people – came for help because they were in trouble with a payday loan.

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“I don’t see any of those any more for our active duty force,” he said.

Hire said he has not seen other scams to take advantage of Marines burgeoning recently.

But Hire said there are still plenty of areas where a federal consumer watchdog will make a difference. Young veterans who have left active duty, and retirees are still being targeted, he said, and car loans are not included in the payday loan interest rate restrictions.

Hire said he expects the new watchdog agency to focus on much-needed financial education for young Marines.

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.