The Federal Trade Commission received 69,204 complaints in 2006 about third-party debt collectors, more than against any other specific industry and nearly triple what it handled in 2000. This according to a story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Many consumer find themselves the victim of debt collector harassment. A vast majority – especially those who are burdened with overdue debts – believe that they have no recourse. These are the people who put caller ID on their phones, program their numbers to reject calls that do not show caller ID, or simply pull the phone out of the wall and stick to a cell phone.
Little do they know that there is a string of state and federal laws that help consumers fight back against harassing debt collectors.
The main statute, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, has been covered extensively here on the Bankruptcy Law Network. You can review articles here and here. There are also a host of state-specific laws covering unfair and deceptive acts and practices; these laws act as a supplement to the FDCPA, often covering issues that the FDCPA does not address or addresses incompletely.
But the statistic is troubling for a number of reasons. With debts being bought and sold like so many apples off the cart, the price being asked for these accounts is on the rise. Though companies such as Midland Credit Management pays about $0.03 on the dollar (according to the SEC documents on file for their parent company, Encore) the smaller players are ratcheting up the costs in bidding wars. That leads to greater pressure on the debt collector to produce a financial recovery from the consumer.
With debt collector abuses on the rise, it is important for the consumer to be watchful at all times.
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