46 consumer, community, civil rights and legal services groups submitted comments in response to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”)’s Request for Information (“RFI”) regarding its adopted regulations and new rulemaking authorities. In these comments, the groups focus on the CFPB’s new authority to write debt collection rules.
Contact with a debt collector is a common experience for Americans. In 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a nationally-representative survey of consumer experiences with debt collection, finding that more than 70 million Americans – about one third of consumers – were contacted by a creditor or debt collector about a debt in…
Practice of Law Technical Clarification Act of 2017
A bill pending in the U.S. House of Representatives, H.R. 1849: Practice of Law Technical Clarification Act of 2017 (Trott), would exempt attorneys and law firms engaged in litigation from the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and eliminate Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) authority over them. Claiming that state courts and bar associations would…
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Debt collection affects millions of Massachusetts residents. This section reviews several different studies to provide an overview of the pervasive nature of debt collection in Massachusetts.
As announced in the Federal Register, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) plans to survey 8,000 individuals as part of its research into effective debt collection disclosures. We applaud the CFPB for taking a data-driven approach to assessing the effectiveness of disclosures to ensure that consumers comprehend their rights pertaining to debt collection. Consumer testing is a critical step to ensure that the CFPB promulgates the most effective regulations in its ongoing debt collection rulemaking.
The National Consumer Law Center, on behalf of its low income clients, submitted comments on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB or Bureau) Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act Outline of proposed regulations under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA.
Debt collection affects millions of Massachusetts residents. In 2014, the Urban Institute reported that nearly 1 in 4 Massachusetts residents with credit reports had a debt in collection due to nonpayment of a bill and that the average amount of the debt was $4,602.
Debt collection affects millions of Massachusetts residents. In 2014, the Urban Institute reported that nearly 1 in 4 Massachusetts residents with credit reports had a debt in collection due to non-payment of a bill and that the average amount of the debt was $4,602.1
The undersigned consumer protection, civil rights, and legal services groups write to express our significant concerns with the outline of proposed regulations on debt collection issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on July 28, 2016. The proposal represents a missed opportunity to fundamentally improve protections for consumers victimized by predatory debt collection practices.
Civil legal aid organizations provide critical front-line services for low-income and elderly people across the country facing debt collection activity. Debt collection is a pervasive part of life in the United States. In 2014, 12 million adults had non-mortgage debts reported as past due on their credit reports and 77 million consumers had nonmortgage debts…
Communication technologies have changed considerably since the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) was first adopted in 1977. Despite technology changes, traditional problems of abusive communications that prompted passage of the FDCPA remain rampant.
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