The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, debt collectors contacting third parties to locate debtors must show that the contact was purely to locate the debtor. In this case, Patricia Evankavitch, the Plaintiff, filed a lawsuit against the debt collection agency Green Tree after…
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has released its 2015 Annual Report, providing an in-depth look at the thousands of consumer complaints received by the Bureau in 2014. A staggering 88,300 complaints, 35% of those made to the CFPB, related to debt collectors and, if taken as factually accurate, each and every one violates Fair…
One of the largest debt buyers in the United States has been ordered to pay nearly $83 million in punitive damages to a Kansas City woman whom it had sued over a $1,000 credit card debt. Portfolio Recovery Associates LLC says it mistakenly pursued Maria Guadalupe Meija (51) in an attempt to collect a debt…
The CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) has taken legal action against a military allotment processor who failed to clearly disclose a number of recurring fees to service members. The outcome? Roughly $3.1 million in relief that is to be paid out to affected service members. Fort Knox National Company, along with its subsidiary, Military Assistance Company (MAC),…
In a recent press release, the United States Department of Education (DoED) announced that it is ending contracts with five private debt collectors. This news comes to us in the wake an internal review conducted by the DoED’s Federal Student Aid (FSA) office. The FSA evaluated more than 20 private collection agencies in order to…
In a recent opinion piece for the New York Times, Executive Vice President and Director of Federal Policy at the Center for Responsible Lending, Gary Kalman, calls upon the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to crack down on standards for payday loans – standards that currently cause more problems for low-income consumers than they resolve….
Harassing debt collectors seeking payment for “phantom debt” are becoming more common, says the FTC. Thousands of Spanish-speaking consumers were targeted by debt collectors Centro Natural Corp. and Sumore LLC, who tricked them into paying over $2 million in phantom debts. A “phantom debt” is any claim for payment which is too old to collect,…
Earlier today, ABC News reported that phony debt collectors are calling thousands of innocent people across the country, illegally threatening them with jail time and other legal action. If you follow the Credit Law Blog, you’re probably already aware that this is a direct violation of the FDCPA (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act). The FDCPA…
Vietnam War veteran Dana Franks of Iowa is under pressure from an Omaha, Nebraska-based debt collection firm to pay over $15,000 for a $5,000 credit card debt from 2006. The debt stems from a Capital One credit card Franks used after the passing of his wife eight years ago. While Franks would like to settle…
Dealing with an endless barrage of debt collection calls is one thing, but when a debt collector demands that you pay a debt, threatening legal action even though you don’t recall owing any debt to begin with? That’s something else entirely. Unfortunately, this was the reality for nearly 600,000 Americans when Kirit Patel’s company, Broadway…
