Sprint Charged Poor Customers More

Sprint has been fined by the government for charging its poorest customers more, proving once again the old adage, "it's expensive to be poor."

The company must pay $3 million to the Federal Trade Commission for the unfair practices, according to a statement from the FTC. Sprint put in place a policy that unfairly charged people with bad credit scores more than people with good credit scores.

The company ran a program called Account Spending Limit that was applied to customers with poor credit scores. The program allowed the company to limit how much money people could spend on services, and cut them off if they exceeded the limit, BuzzFeedNews explains. People put in this program had to pay an extra $7.99 a month that other Sprint customers with better credit scores did not have to pay.

"Sprint failed to give many consumers required information about why they were placed in a more costly program, and when they did, the notice often came too late for consumers to choose another mobile carrier," said Jessica Rich, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "Companies must follow the law when it comes to the way they use consumer credit reports and scores."

Making matters worse, Sprint would typically only let customers know they were in the program after their cancellation period had expired, meaning that consumers were stuck in the program with little recourse but paying expensive early cancellation fees to get out of their contracts with the company.

BuzzFeed says that program dates back to at least November 2013 and that customers affected by the program will not receive any monetary compensation as a part of the ruling, which also makes Sprint promise to tell customers of the policy within five days of joining any of the company's plans.