Mistreatment of Debtors

Cajun I'm with you. I think that since the time that everyone was becoming moer pc, that we were allowing ourselves to become door mats! We as a nation, are so afraid of doing the wrong thing, that when the wrong thing is done to us as consumers, we are terrified to open our mouths for fear of stepping on someones toes. The old motto the customer is always right no longer exists and most people quake in their boots at the mere mention of a ca calling them. We as consumers have allowed this to happen. If someone came up to you on the stree and told you that you were going to jail because you didn't pay you visa, you would laugh them in the face, but let someone call you on the phone and say the same thing and you beleive them. What is the difference? We have allowed the ca industry to have this power over us as consumers - it is time to take the power back. The only way to do this is in educating the public as to what is going on, reporting to the state ag's, and any other gov. agency that will listen, to bring out in the open the type of slime balls that some of the ca's in the industry hire. collection agencies are not as a whole bad, nor do they hire the questionable characters that some of the worst in the business do. But if they pay a fair wage - one not based on how much money is collected on any given day, maybe things would get better. These are just my thoughts on the subject. Sorry I am on a soap box at the moment.

irish,I thank and welcome your comments. I don't have any issues right now with creditors but in reading horror stories here, it is downright criminal the way they treat people.

Irish,

You made some good points. Until I came to this forum, I was an uneducated consumer. I let a CA walk all over me several years ago over a cell phone bill. They said I had to make payment arrangements that night or I was going to court. I was just going through a divorce so my emotions were already frazzled. I made the payment arrangements and basically got ripped off. I can't remember the name of the agency but today I know better. If I don't know what to do, I am able to ask here and find the solution. What about the people who don't know any better? It's not like the collector is going to tell them they have rights. I've gotten into arguments with collectors when I've quoted the fdcpa to them. One even told me it was rubbish. Of course, it's a whole different story when you file a complaint against them. One important thing is to find out if your state allows you to record these phone calls and to get it on the record. I have done so and I am going to sue one CA. It's time to take a stand. Cajus brings up a good point about the original creditor though. They don't have to follow the FDCPA so what can we do about them?

While it is true that fdcpa is a federal law and only applied to CA's, most states have their own laws that govern the actual creditors.

For example when my company wants to operate a finance business in Illinois, we need to have a loan license issued by the Dept of Financial Institutions. Part of our loan license says that we have to abide by the terms of the Consumer Installment Loan Act. Inside of that Act, is a section on Credit Practices, which for the most part mimics the FDCPA: http://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/038/038001100A02200R.html

If I start threatening to arrest my customers, I risk my loan license being suspended/revoked. Which would put me out of business.

If a creditor is bullying you, you should be able to file a complaint with the state department that issues their license. The state will then usually intervene on your behalf.

I'm all for anything that makes creditors & collection agencies treat their customers better. All of us, for the most part, deal with customer service in our jobs every day, even if you are the owner of the company, or are in management - the "customers" you deal with are your employees, if you think about it.

If I treated any of our dealers or customers the same way some of these creditors or CA's treat theirs, I'd be fired on the spot. And some of our customers owe us huge amounts of money (hundreds of thousands)....yet we don't call them and harrass them, threaten to put them in jail, call their employers and tell them about the customer's debts, or send them threatening e-mails. But a payday lender or CA thinks it's ok to do this to their customer who has a $200 - $300 loan. :evil: