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Originally passed in 1970, The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is a U.S. federal law that regulates the collection, dissemination, and use of consumer credit information. Along with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), it forms the base of consumer credit rights in the United States. The FCRA is enforced by the FTC.
Information furnishers – such as creditors, collection agencies, and debt buyers – can supply information to a consumer’s credit report only if they 1) supply complete and accurate information, 2) have procedures in place to investigate disputes from consumers, and 3) inform a consumer if negative information is to be placed on their credit report.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been very busy lately, of course. Most of its attention seems to be focused on various sectors of the consumer finance industry. But the agency did recently reveal its intention to return some focus to the debt collection industry.
The Federal Trade Commission testified before a U.S. Senate Commerce subcommittee on a recent FTC study examining the accuracy of consumer credit reports, as well as the agency’s efforts to improve credit report accuracy through enforcement and education.
The New York Times ran a feature-length piece Friday on how a prominent credit scoring service is treating collection accounts. The new scoring formula benefits consumers, but it could also present ARM companies with an opportunity and another tool to use in their collection efforts.
Over one-third of all debt collection complaints filed with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) focus on so-called “repeat calls.” With most collections efforts requiring repeat outreach to the same contacts, it becomes imperative that organizations strategically manage the number of outreach attempts to debtors.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit last week upheld a lower court’s dismissal of a case in which a consumer sued a debt collection agency for violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), Equifax for violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), and BellSouth for violating Louisiana state law.
There was a lot of activity associated with the CFPB over the last two weeks as the march continues through the maze of companies that comprise the web of the U.S. consumer finance market.
The National Association of Retail Collection Attorneys (NARCA) 2013 Spring Collection Conference will take place at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas from May 8th through May 11th
Many people closely associated with the debt collection industry have assumed for years that Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) reform is imminent. And in the last Congress, there were bills filed that would have made substantive changes to the decades-old law.
But they never went anywhere. Are legislators serious about reforming the law?
Has your company ever matched up against an attorney who files boilerplate complaints, does not participate in the litigation process and then refuses to lay down the sword despite being informed that his or her arguments are likely baseless? If your company has been involved in such a case, you know the frustration with feeling that the normal rules of litigation do not seem to apply.
In one recent case, two debt collectors chose to take a principled stand and fight against apparent vexatious tactics. The Court agreed with the debt collectors in that recent case and awarded them more than $13,000 in total sanctions against a consumer attorney.
Maybe the ARM community celebrated a little early over consumer lawsuits.
The total number of lawsuits filed by consumers claiming violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) increased seven percent in January on a year-over-year basis after a celebrated overall decline in 2012.