Attorney General and Chief Financial Officer Help Protect Consumers Against Abusive Debt Collectors

Attorney General Bill McCollum is working to protect consumers against bill collector harassment.  The Attorney General’s office has been criticized for not doing enough to address the 4,400 complaints received in 2009.  McCollum’s office proposed an initiative to make some tactics an inherent violation of the State’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

In turn, Chief Financial Officer, Alex Sink has given her support for four reforms that would make it easier to track abusive debt collectors.  One of the reforms includes reducing the number of complaints needed to refer an abusive collector to the State Attorney or Attorney General, and eliminating a time period required, as opposed to the current requirement of five complaints in one year.

For more information, go to www.againstbillcollectors.com/articles.html

Can you inherit debt?

If a family member dies and leaves unpaid debt, who is responsible for paying it?  The Federal Trade Commission is trying to help people understand their responsibilities.  The FTC has issued an alert stating that family members are not responsible for the debt, unless you are the spouse, and even the spouse's responsibility may be limited.  The person's estate is responsible for paying the debt.  Therefore, before any money is distributed to family members, generally, all debts must be paid.

For more information, you can read this article 
http://www.againstbillcollectors.com/media/CantInheritDebt-StPeteTimes081509.pdf

If a debt collector is harassing you about the debt, you can contact our firm for assistance.  Contact us.

Debt Collectors Using Texting to Contact Consumers

Some debt collectors are resorting to sending text messages to contact consumers. Consumers should not have to pay to be contacted by a debt collector. Since some phone plans charge per text message, the consumer is being charged each time a debt collector sends them a text message.

The Federal Trade Commission is working to change the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to include banning cell phone contact and texting.

For more information, go to
http://www.againstbillcollectors.com/media/Limiturgedontextingtocollectdebt.pdf

Abusive Debt Collectors

CBS News reported on a woman who was being harassed by debt collectors for a bill she didn't owe. The debt collectors claimed she owed $4400. She paid $900 to settle because she felt she couldn't pay an attorney to fight the claim. She did not realize that the debt collectors would have to pay her attorneys' fees if she was successful, so she could have hired an attorney without any cost to her.

Andrew Cuomo, New York Attorney General, sued the group that was harassing the consumer. The difficult part can be that these debt collectors close their offices (after being sued numerous times) and then re-open under different names.

Watch the video.