We have been posting here for the last couple of days about the report released jointly by the Consumers Union (publisher of Consumer Reports) and East Bay Community Law Center at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law about over-reaching by the debt buying industry. Not surprisingly, the industry has begun to talk back. We thought you might be interested in what they had to say.
From ACA International, an association of credit and collection professionals whose membership includes third party debt collectors, asset buyers and collection attorneys, comes these comments: “Our members work very hard to ensure consumers are treated respectfully during all facets of the collection process…. Debt collectors play an important and invaluable roll in keeping our economy healthy.”
DBA International, another association representing the nation’s debt buyers, was slightly less circumspect in its response to the report, which is titled Past Due: Why Debt Collection Practice and the Debt Buying Industry Need Reform Now. The organization came out strongly against the report, which had characterized debt buying and selling as a massive, unregulated industry, stating “DBA …disagrees with …the call for further restrictions to the debt buying industry. Over the past decade selling bad debt has emerged as an important and effective way for financial institutions to recoup money from bad debts. The money from those sales is then invested back into the banking system in the form of loans and revolving credit for working class Americans.”
Chances are if you are reading this blog, your experience with debt buyers and collection companies is that they are not necessarily the principled professionals adding value to the economy for the good of working class Americans that these quotes would have us think.
If you have been contacted or sued by any of these, or other debt buyers or debt collectors, contact an experienced debt lawyer for assistance: Progressive Financial Services; Collection Onc. DBA Collection Company of America; Allied Interstate; Pioneer Credit Recovery; NCO; The CBE Group; Diversified Collection Services; Allied International Credit; CollectCorp; Premiere Credit of North America; Account Control Technology; GC Services; Financial Management Services; West Asset Management; Financial Asset Management Systems; ConServe; Van Rue Credit Corporation.
-Sheril Stanford