The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently released its complaint statistics for the month of December 2015. Debt collection issues far and away dominated Indiana consumers’ complaints by almost a two-to-one margin over the next highest categories of mortgages and credit reporting. Debt collection complaints are consistently the top complaint received by the CFPB in the State of Indiana as well as all other states. Interestingly, the CFPB’s statistics do not break down the complaints as to whether they originate from an original creditor or a debt collector. Debt Collectors are covered by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, while creditors generally are not. I suspect that, even so, a majority of the debt collection complaints are caused by debt collectors since debt collectors’ income is usually much more directly linked to the amount of money they collect. This means the financial incentive for debt collectors to push the limits of fair debt collection is often too great for them to resist.
If you have a debt collection issue, contact us here. We may be able to help.