Tweet
I’ve been following Jeff Horwitz’ excellent series on credit card debt collection at American Banker, which I’ve chronicled in a couple posts. The short version is that the attention to detail in credit card debt information is as thorough and well-kept as it is in foreclosure and mortgage information.
Now Joe Nocera has picked up on this series and brought it from more of a trade publication to the pages of the paper of record. Good for him.
You can’t read the series without wondering whether banks have learned anything from the foreclosure crisis, which resulted in a $25 billion settlement with the federal government and the states. That crisis was the direct result of shoddy, often illegal practices on the part of the banks, which caused untold misery for millions of Americans. Part of the goal of the settlement was simply to force the banks to treat homeowners with some decency. You wouldn’t think that that would be too much to ask. But it was never going to happen without the threat of litigation.
As it turns out, this same kind of awful behavior has been taking place inside the credit card collections departments of the big banks. Records are a mess. Robo-signing has been commonplace. Collections practices hurt primarily the poor and the unsophisticated, just like foreclosure practices. (I sometimes wonder if banks would make any profits at all if they couldn’t take advantage of the poor and unsophisticated.)
Not only are the banks ripping off customers by selling their debt to collection agencies with wrong information, they’re really ripping off the collection agencies. They have put them in a position where all the records about the credit card debt are essentially unverifiable. And it’s given people harassed by these debt collectors a very simple path to eliminating the issue totally: just contest the debt in court and watch the collection agency melt away:
But if you do find out that a collections agency is suing you for unpaid credit-card debt, then you should absolutely turn up in court and ask for documentation. By that point, of course, any hit to your credit will already have happened, so you can’t damage your credit score by fighting the suit and refusing to pay.And the simple act of asking the plaintiff to prove that you owe what they say you owe will very often make the whole suit disappear.
So get the word out: if you, or anybody you know, gets sued for unpaid credit-card debt, the first thing you should do is simply ask the person suing you to prove that you owe what they say that you owe. The onus is not on you to provide documentation that you paid off the debt, or anything like that. The onus is on them to prove that the debt exists.
This doesn’t mean that this is an easy task. One woman who did contest a purported debt on a balance she paid off took three years getting the collector to back off. And lots of people – most of them who deal with this, in fact – not only don’t have lawyers on retainer, but cannot afford them for this purpose.
But there is very little legal training you actually need to contest this. “Show me the debt” will do. The collection agencies don’t want to go through the trouble of providing proof. In most cases, they buy the debt with the knowledge that the bank cannot even attest to the accuracy of the information.
Legal aid counselors and groups should distribute this knowledge quickly, along with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. If done in a coordinated fashion, it could actually significantly reduce the scourge of debt collection agencies.
4 Comments
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About FDL News Desk
I like your language there. Collection agencies absolutely are a scourge. I’ve had to deal with them on my tuition loans, and on a very old credit card debt that occurred during my unemployment. I took a deal and paid a settlement amount, yet for the next year or two, new agencies periodically tried to make me pay them.
Come to think of it, haven’t heard from any for some time. Maybe they’ve finally given up. I was incredulous when I investigated after dealing with these creeps that they buy and re-sell debts that have been paid, just to see if they can get some more money out of the turnip, er, “debtor.” The Boston Globe did a great series on their outrageous practices a few years ago.
“Scourge” is almost too mild for these companies. I hope their “whole current business model” is destroyed, and soon.
Actually, what is even more important, is to tell people about the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), which, to my knowledge, is still in force and effect. So the bank sells credit card debt to a collection agency? As soon as the agency gets in touch, send them a “don’t bother me again” letter. If they do, the FTC will (and DOES) come down on them very hard. Keep records of all communications with and from the agency.
I am waiting for good old Bank of America to get in touch. It has been four months, though, and so far they have not even tried. It makes me wonder if BoA isn’t going to bother at all, and just write it off to turn it over to someone else.
Regardless, there are already some pretty strong laws on the books that DO work… Consumers just need to be aware of how they work!
I had one credit card send me copies of statements as their “proof” that the debt was not only valid, but that it was mine! My response agreed that they had indeed sent me “copies” of “statements”, but that it did not constitute proof of the debt and that I would testify to that in court. Needless to say, they didn’t show up the next week in court and the matter was dropped.
The current scourge, at least here in Illinois, is to have someone there that asks you to go into a side room to “make a deal” on the debt. People do it because they are honest, but don’t realize that it’s a scam to get a court-authorized agreement on the books so that they can later be arrested for defaulting. Our AG put forth a bill to stop the practice since the courts were handing over the bonds, thus creating a modern day version of debtors prisons. So far it seems to have passed one of the state houses and is on its way to the other one.
There is also a statute of limitation on old debt, depending on the state it is just 3 or 4 years (a few states are longer). After that they can’t legally touch you, which is why they never send mail and never leave messages (wire and mail fraud). Legit businesses don’t need to hide behind phoney caller ID names/numbers. And if a zombie collection agency calls, inform them you are recording the call (wire fraud).
We had been dealing with zombie debt my husband had. He had posted a resume on Monster and the calls started. This collection agency also used his resume to spoof the caller ID to show businesses he might have actually done business with or had an interest in. Just tell them you are recording the call. End of subject.