FTC Crackdown on Debt Collection Complaints Creates Industry Hurdles

The Federal Trade Commission and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are teaming up more and more to identify and tackle bad collection companies and practices. For instance, in September the two agencies filed an amicus brief together before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Delgado v. Capital Management Services, LP, et al.; the case that deals with language used in collection letters sent on time-barred accounts. According to reports, a consumer received a settlement offer in a letter with a 45-day deadline for response. However, the statute of limitations on the account had expired, and the letter didn’t disclose that the account was time-barred.

As it turns out, we anticipated some of these trends more than a year ago in the FTC Debt Collection Complaints Compendium. Complaints of companies falsely representing the character, amount or status of a debt accounted for more than 26 percent of complaints to the FTC. Also, now that the CFPB is handling consumer complaints on debt collection, and naming the names of non-compliant companies, unnamed/unidentified companies prove even more troublesome for the industry. How can the CFPB expect to see consumer complaints resolved against companies that refuse to identify themselves? And is it fair that only those companies who identify themselves to consumers are the ones who will be publically listed, whether the complaints against them were justified or not?

Get answers to these questions and more, along with crucial historic data for your company, in the FTC Debt Collection Complaints Compendium. This report is the first of its kind that analyzes the FTC’s debt collection complaints data. It provides both content and context, presenting the information you need to respond to questions about debt collection complaints in easy-to-understand language.

Also, be sure to check out our Local, State, and Federal Government Debt Collection Report. If you are thinking about getting into – or expanding within – the government collections sector (which is not a bad idea), this report will give you the Top 10 tips for success, as well as a comprehensive overview of the landscape, the size of the market, the challenges, and opportunities.