‘Tis the season – for online scamming. Economists agree the 2020 holiday season will set records in online shopping: up to $189 billion and 18 separate days where online purchases exceed $3 billion. The previous record was just 3 days over $3 billion. Criminals around the world know that this is the best time of […]
A recent study analyzed credit bureau data and found the average American is over $90K in debt. The age bracket with the highest debt load is between ages 40-55, with an average debt of $136K per person. Juggling debt through early adulthood is an American rite-of-passage, though we never get any real education to prepare […]
If it seems like you are getting more robo-calls, it’s probably not your imagination. Total robo-calls in America hover between three and five billion per month. The highest count in recent years was October of 2019, when 5.6 billion were tallied. That’s 7.6 million robo-calls per hour, and 17 robo-calls per person that month. An […]
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) is the 2010 federal law that restricts the behavior of third-party debt collectors. The law outlines a number of specific debt collection means and methods that it deems abusive, misleading, or unfair. When a third-party debt collector violates the FDCPA, the consumer has one year to take legal […]
The Fair Credit Reporting Act is a federal law that governs how consumer reporting agencies collect, access, use, and share data. It applies not only to the big three credit reporting agencies, (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax) but also to specialty agencies that collect and distribute data about your banking history, medical records, and rental history. […]
People experiencing money problems are inherently vulnerable to collector harassment. For this reason, the government has been regulating what debt collectors can and cannot do for over 50 years. To help you recognize if your rights are being violated, here are some important collection behaviors to keep in mind: “Harassment” includes: calling before 8 AM […]
