Making a plan is one thing. Sticking to it: quite another. During 2015, the FTC made a plan to address some new and troubling issues in debt collection. Throughout the course of the year, we stuck to that plan – bringing a record number of new cases, banning bad debt collectors, talking with industry, and finding new ways to do outreach.
The FTC gets more complaints against debt collectors than against any other industry. But this year, we hope, we put a dent in the bad practices we hear so much about. During 2015, we not only coordinated the first federal-state-local enforcement initiative against debt collectors – including actions by more than 70 different partners – we also filed 12 new cases against 52 different defendants. And we resolved 9 cases, getting nearly $94 million in judgments.
We added to our list of banned debt collectors in 2015 – and published the list. These are people and companies that – because of serious and repeated violations of the law – have been banned by federal court orders from ever doing business in debt collection again. This has the result of putting these folks out of business, but it’s also a message to law-abiding debt collectors everywhere: don’t do debt collection business with these folks or you may find yourself in hot water.
One of the really important things we did this year was talk with the debt collection industry. The Debt Collection Dialogues kicked off in Buffalo, and then continued in Dallas and Atlanta. At all three, to sold-out houses, we brought together the debt collection industry with the state and federal agencies that regulate them – allowing all perspectives to be heard.
In consumer education, 2015 saw the release of a Spanish-language graphic novel – or fotonovela – about debt collection. It shows how you can deal with questionable debt collection tactics – and people ordered more than 113,000 copies of the publication last year.
But 2016 is another year – and we have more plans. So watch this space to see what else is coming – and to learn how to spot and avoid bad debt collection practices.
