Coming soon to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram: debt collectors!
Coming soon to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram: debt collectors! The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently released an updated set of rules for the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) which will allow debt collectors to use text messages, email, and social media to communicate with debtors to collect debts. This adds new methods to debt collectors’ present arsenal of phone calls and letters through which they can attempt to browbeat debtors into making payments on their debts. While the FDCPA contains limits to how many times a debt collector may call and speak with a debtor (and anyone who has been on the receiving end of such calls knows that these phone call limits are routinely ignored), these new rules do not contain any limits on the amount of electronic communications debt collectors may make, except to say that “excessive” communications are prohibited. One important feature of these new rules is that collectors utilizing electronic communications must give a way for consumers to opt out of electronic communications. However, there are no details on how to opt out yet.
Unfortunately, these new rules will make debt collectors an even more pervasive presence for millions of Americans. The misery inflicted by persistent debt collectors will only grow more pervasive. Fortunately, filing bankruptcy is a way to stop all of their harassment cold. If you are being harassed—whether by old-fashioned telephone calls and letters or by email and social media—contact us to find out how effective and easy it is to stop debt collectors in their tracks.