Preferred Financial Services reports on the rise in Debt Collector complaints and problems….
Andover, Massachusetts July 1st 2010 — As consumers continue to struggle with their debt burdens each month and the economy struggles to create jobs and wealth, the debt collection industry is seeing a rise in complaints filed by consumers. The debt collection industry has always been the leader in complaints filled against it, but the numbers continue to increase with the bad economy. During the boom years consumers had a way to pay off their debt as jobs and credit were plentiful. This meant that collectors didn’t have to resort to some of the extreme measures being taken now to collect on a debt. But now with the economy down and jobs scarce consumers are not paying up as easily or as frequently which has caused an alarming rise in illegal practices by debt collections agencies. The latest data for the year 2009 shows an increase of 50% to 67,550 complaints compared to the year prior. The FTC has also predicted that number to rise another 13% in 2010.
Although collectors have always been aggressive in the tactics many are now blatantly breaking the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which has been around since 1977.This act was meant to protect consumers from abusive, intimidating, and illegal behavior by debt collectors. Some of the complaints being filed include receiving calls before 8am and after 9pm, demanding more money than is owed, and threatening the client with consequences. All of these tactics are illegal under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act but this has not stopped the agencies from employing them. The collection agencies know that people in debt have more pressing concerns than taking a collection agency to court so they continue to implement these illegal tactics in order to collect as much money as possible.
While most of these actions are physically harmless and more of an annoyance than anything else, there has also been a rise in physical threatening and violence against consumers. In 2009, 2517 complaints were filed in regards to collectors threatening or using violence against consumers, double compared to 2008. This type of behavior obviously can not be tolerated and consumers do have a way to fight back against illegal collections practices. Consumers can take collectors to court and sue them for any violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. This threat of legal action should in good economic times prevent these types of occurrences from happening but in today’s uncertain climate we expect to see a continued rise in complaints filed by the consumer against the collections industry.
Have you faced some of these illegal tactics by collectors? Have you filed a complaint with the FTC? More importantly, have you seen a rise in aggressive behavior since the economy headed down in early 2008? I’d love to hear from all of you that are currently dealing with collectors and stay tuned for a post on how to deal with collectors in the future!
Preferred Financial Services is a debt reduction firm certified by the CFC (Center for Financial Certifications) and accredited by U.S.O.B.A. (United States Organizations for Bankruptcy Alternatives). Headquartered in Andover, Massachusetts, Preferred Financial Services has been a leader in the debt reduction industry since 2003. Preferred Financial Services has acquired some of the best experience in the industry over the past 7 years. In 2009 alone Preferred Financial Services reduced over $16.5 million worth of consumer debt for just $6.4 million, for a savings of about 60%- and over 2,900 accounts were settled on behalf of their clients.
For more information, please visit www.pfsdebtrelief.com or follow us on our blog at www.pfsdebtrelief.com/blog/ .
Contact:
Stephan Tavernini
Original Article:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Debt-collectors-sock-it-to-cnnm-4156294800.html?x=0
