Debt Collectors in the ER: Out of Hand?

Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said it would begin regulating debt collection companies starting at the beginning of 2013. “We now find that debt collection is a central issue of our times,” director Richard Cordray said. The stats are indeed sobering: Debt collection is projected to be nearly a $13 billion business this year, and 30 million Americans have an average of $1,500 in debt that collectors can come after. Collection companies, meanwhile, are coming up with increasingly creative and heavy-handed ways to claw back those dollars.

Debt collector horror stories abound: There are threats to dig up the dead relatives of those who couldn't pay their funeral bills, promises to imprison debtors or take their children into custody -- even warnings that pets will be killed.

Debt collectors have time and again proven to be ruthless in tracking down delinquent borrowers, so perhaps it was only a matter of time before social media became their go-to hunting grounds. 

(Reznicek111)

(~Ipknoss)

Filed under: Buyer Beware, Consumer Complaints, Credit Cards, Debt, Loans, Mortgages

Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson Tuesday published a six-volume report on the practices of non-profit hospital and clinic operator Fairview Services and one of its service providers, Accretive , Inc. (NYSE:AH). The report focused on a broad range of issues, but the debt collection and payment practices caught the most attention. Accretive's stock fell more ...