New Rule Would Allow Debt Collectors To Send Unlimited Texts, Emails

On Tuesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed new rules that would update debt collection laws.

These new proposed laws would allow debt collectors to make a maximum of seven phone calls per week, and once the collector reached the consumer, they would not be allowed to call again for another week.

The new laws would also allow debt collectors to send unlimited text messages and emails to consumers in the interest of collecting a debt owed.

Until now, debt collectors have been beholden to a law called the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act  — the law was written in the 1970s, and therefore did not incorporate the majority of communication methods we have available today.

As technology has advanced, debt collectors have found more creative, more persistent, and oftentimes more bothersome methods of contacting consumers. This can include text messages, messages sent through social media platforms, and emails.

Debt collectors have expressed approval at this new move, given that many collectors have started contacting consumers via mostly digital means.

Consumers, on the other hand, worry that the new laws could give debt collectors more leeway to contact consumers in increasingly extreme ways.

Christine Hines, legislative director for the National Association of Consumer Advocates, told The Washington Post that the new proposal “seems like an invitation to encourage more abuse, not to deter it,” as “with the extreme examples of debt collectors’ harassment and invasion of consumers’ privacy that we’ve seen, it’s always a bad idea to exempt debt collectors from liability or grant them a safe harbor.”

Consumers have already filed lawsuits against debt collection companies alleging use of unfair tactics to collect debts. Allegedly, some collector agencies result to harassment to collect debts, and infringe on consumers’ privacy.

In some cases, consumers argue that this infringement comes along with debt collectors’ access to digital tools to contact customers, as well as their ability to collect personal information on customers they are attempting to reach.

One such lawsuit filed by Christopher F. against Direct Recovery Services LLC, and its owner Elle Gusman, claimed that he received numerous text messages from a number that he didn’t recognize.

When he followed a link in the text message to a website, Christopher discovered that the messages were from Direct Recovery Services, which had allegedly found a new way to contact him.

“I was appalled. They can’t send text messages if it’s a debt collector…It was just shocking that they would do that. It felt like a scam,” Christopher told The Washington Post.

Direct Recovery Services agreed to pay Christopher $3,500 to settle the claims against them earlier this month.

Consumers use lawsuits to stand up to these practices, but this new proposed change to the law may make it easier and easier for debt collectors to use extreme measures to contact consumers.

The Direct Recovery Services Debt Collection Lawsuit is Case No. 5:19-cv-00846-SL, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.

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