Bankruptcy

Fair Debt Collection Practices Act Complaints on the Rise

By J. Michael McBride

Although in-house debt collector complaints are down by 6.5% in 2007 from the previous year, the complaints about third-party debt collectors increased by 2.4%. The top five complaints lodged in 2007 with the Fair Trade Commission were:

1. collectors attempted to collect on debts that consumers either did not owe or was larger than what was actually owed [27,393 complaints];
2. harassment (either by repeated or continuous calls, profane language, calls during off hours, threats of violence, etc.) [13,989 complaints];
3. falsely threatened lawsuits or other similar actions [4,592 complaints];
4. consumers called at work [4,161 complaints]; and
5. improper third-party contacts [2,672].

ACA International is working with a vendor to create an enhanced dispute-resolution program incorporating an ombudsman.

You can read the entire article at: http://www.creditcollectionsworld.com/article.html?id=20080324OCBCEJ3O&from=creditandcollectionnews.

Chandra

Full post as published by Texas Lawyer Blog on April 01, 2008 (boomark / email).