Earlier this year, the pandemic swept across the country, killing 100,000 Americans by the spring, shuttering businesses and schools, and forcing people into their homes. It was a great time to be a debt collector. In August, Encore Capital, the largest debt buyer in the country, announced that it had doubled its previous record for … Read more
Today the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) took action against the nation’s two largest debt buyers and collectors for using deceptive tactics to collect bad debts. The Bureau found that Encore Capital Group and Portfolio Recovery Associates bought debts that were potentially inaccurate, lacking documentation, or unenforceable. Without verifying the debt, the companies collected payments … Read more
Last week new information in the lawsuit between Morgan Drexen and the CFPB brought to light a commission compensated department called the Preferred Creditor Program. You can read that article, here. At least one commenter mentioned Morgan Drexen is not the only company to have such a program. If not, then an industry wide problem … Read more
“Dear Steve, My wife and I both became disabled and she had to go on Social Security Disability in 2008 and I had to go on Retirement/Disability from the US Department of Defense Civil Service in 2004. Needless to say our incomes dropped substantially and we could no longer afford our credit card debts. My … Read more
A debt settlement insider forwarded over to click here the following fax they received from Portfolio Recovery recently. It appears the Portfolio Recovery is getting tough with settlement companies and law firms. The correspondence from Joseph Hood III even says that effective 3-1-2012 Portfolio Recovery will no longer generate agreement letters for arrangements. That could … Read more
The problem of zombie debts, that’s debts that come back to life, is well known. What is becoming more of a problem is what happens when an old debt has been sold, sold, and sold again. The current debt buyer can’t really prove they own the debt at all. In fact just recently we published … Read more
Attorney General Chris Koster today filed suit against two debt collection companies that are operating scams to collect debts from citizens who do not owe the money. Koster filed law suits in St. Louis against Portfolio Recovery Associates, a public company based in Virginia, and Professional Debt Management located in Kansas City. Koster said Portfolio … Read more