More than a quarter (27%) of consumers whoโve interacted with debt collectors said they felt threatened by the most recent creditor or collector who contacted them, according to a new survey from the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB).
That may not sound surprising, given debt collectors donโt have a reputation for being friendly, but itโs a noteworthy discovery. Itโs illegal for debt collectors to harass or verbally abuse consumers.
Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), a debt collector cannot โharass, oppress or abuse any person in connection with the collection of a debt.โ That includes things like threatening to hurt or arrest you, using obscene or profane language or using repeated phone calls to annoy you. Theyโre also not allowed to lie to consumers. The CFPBโs survey results indicate those rules often arenโt being followed.
A bit more on that data: Itโs based on survey responses from 2,132 consumers the bureau contacted between December 2014 and March 2015. Of those respondents, 32% (682 people) said they had been contacted by a creditor or debt collector about paying a debt within the last year. The results are weighed to represent โthe broader population of consumers with credit records.โ
Itโs worth noting that consumers saying they felt threatened doesnโt mean the collector they talked to broke the law. Still, 27% is a high occurrence rate of potentially illegal behavior. Additionally, reports of threatening debt collectors wasnโt the only issue raised by survey respondents: About 40% of consumers whoโd been contacted about debts in collection said they asked a collector or creditor to stop contacting them and, of those consumers, about 75% said the collector continued to contact them anyway. Legally, a debt collector must stop contacting a consumer if that consumer sent a written request to the collector to stop communicating with them, with a few exceptions.
ACA International, the largest trade group for the debt collection industry, took issue with the surveyโs methodology, among other things, in a statement it issued denouncing the CFPBโs report.
โThis represents only one eight-millionth of 1% of the approximately 77 million Americans with debts in collections,โ the statement says, referencing the 682 survey respondents who reported being contacted by a debt collector. โDespite the calculated, incendiary message that the CFPB public relations machine released, the insights from the survey are not necessarily representative of consumersโ actual experiences and do not come anywhere close to rising to a level that can be extrapolated across tens of millions of consumers.โ
If you ever find yourself dealing with a debt collector, itโs a good idea to take the time to familiarize yourself with your rights and the rules debt collectors have to follow when contacting you. You can report any issues you encounter to your stateโs attorney general, the Federal Trade Commission or the CFPB, and youโll want to keep an eye on your credit reports and scores to see how the collection account affects you. (You can get a free summary of your credit report, with updates every 14 days, on Credit.com.)
Image: Christopher Futcher
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