tagged w/ Debt Collectors
-
Accretive Health, a debt-collection company under fire from Minnesota and federal officials for aggressive tactics to squeeze money from hospital patients, is striking back at critics.
In a rebuttal to accusations made by Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson (D), Accretive Health flatly denied it has violated federal or Minnesota laws governing debt collection and patient privacy and said its role in hospitals is to help patients find ways to pay for their medical care. "We are proud of what we do," the company said in 29-page report issued Friday evening. "Patients appreciate the education, expertise, and compassion that we provide."
Accretive Health has been battered in Minnesota, Washington, and on Wall Street since Swanson published a six-volume report on her website last month alleging that the Chicago-based company demanded that emergency room patients pay before receiving medical care, that collectors visited patients' bedsides asking for money, and that collectors employed harsh and deceptive tactics. Democratic lawmakers and federal agencies have made inquiries and Accretive Health shares lost more than half their value before rebounding after the company reported positive earnings Thursday.
Read more here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/11/accretive-health-debt-collector-hospitals_n_1509329.htmlAccretive Health, a debt-collection company under fire from Minnesota and federal... more
-
-
Imzadi
-
added this
-
18 days ago
- |
-
APNewsBreak: Dems mum on Obama proposal on debt collectors pursuing money owed government
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal-government/apnewsbreak-dems-mum-on-obama-proposal-on-debt-collectors-pursuing-money-owed-government/2011/10/04/gIQATDh5JL_story.html
WASHINGTON — To the dismay of consumer groups and the discomfort of Democrats, President Barack Obama wants Congress to make it easier for private debt collectors to call the cellphones of consumers delinquent on student loans and other billions owed the federal government.
The change “is expected to provide substantial increases in collections, particularly as an increasing share of households no longer have landlines and rely instead on cellphones,” the administration wrote recently. The little-noticed recommendation would apply only to cases in which money is owed the government, and is tucked into the mammoth $3 trillion deficit-reduction plan the president submitted to Congress.
Despite the claim, the administration has not yet developed an estimate of how much the government would collect, and critics reject the logic behind the recommendation.
“Enabling robo-calls (to cellphones) is just going to lead to more harassment and abuse, and it’s not going to help the government collect more money,” said Lauren Saunders of the Boston-based National Consumer Law Center. “People aren’t paying their student loans because they can’t find a job.”
Whatever the impact on the budget deficit, the proposal has aligned the White House with the private debt collection industry — frequently the subject of consumer complaints — at a time when the economy is weak, unemployment is high and Obama is embarking on his campaign for re-election.
Democrats in Congress who frequently support the president, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California, declined through aides to say whether they favor or oppose the plan.
Nor was there any reaction from two other members of the party’s leadership in the Senate, Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Chuck Schumer of New York. Both men frequently take the side of consumers in legislative struggles.
Several aides, speaking on condition of anonymity so they could talk freely, said Democrats do not want to oppose the president but are unable to support the request.
Mark Schiffman, a spokesman for ACA International, an industry trade association, said the administration “basically has come to the same solution we have” at a time when an increasing number of Americans have no landline phone to receive calls.
The change “is something we have been advocating for,” he said, although he added his organization did not have direct discussions with administration officials in advance.
Schiffman noted that debt collectors have long been allowed to make robo-calls to landline phones. He said automatic dialing is a more efficient way to contact consumers who are overdue in their payments, and the industry wants it allowed in all cases, not solely those involving debts owed to the government, as Obama has proposed. Legislation along those lines was introduced in the House last week.
Federal law currently permits private debt collectors to use automatic dialing in trying to contact consumers on their landline phones. They also are permitted to make individually-dialed calls to some cellphones.
The request comes at a time when the government is looking for ways to collect tens of billions of dollars.
According to a report by the Treasury Department’s Financial Management Service, the Education and the Health and Human Services departments as well as FMS itself referred debts totaling $35.9 billion to private debt collectors in the 2010 fiscal year.
The Education Department accounted for the largest share by far — $28.8 billion referred to 22 private debt collection companies. The firms collected $685 million outright, and another $1.7 billion was recast into agreements that are designed to be paid monthly, according to the report.
Education Department officials did not respond to several requests to speak on the record about the proposal.
According to written responses the department provided to questions, it hires private collection agencies in part so the government can gain “the benefits of greater collections” through the use of new technology that is developed by private industry.
Collection agencies can receive a fee of as much as 17.5 percent of the amount they recover.
A different federal agency, the Federal Trade Commission, collects extensive records about the private debt collection industry in general.
“The FTC receives more complaints about the debt collection industry than any other specific industry,” according to an annual report to Congress, more than 100,000 in 2010.
The complaints fall into several categories, citing alleged harassment, demands for impermissibly large payments, failure to provide required consumer notice and threatening dire consequences such as jail time....APNewsBreak: Dems mum on Obama proposal on debt collectors pursuing money owed... more
-
-
Monique Sykes et al., Plaintiffs v. Mel Harris
and Associates, LLC, et al., Defendants, 09 Civ. 8486 (DC)
~
A Lawsuit That Dirty Debt Collectors Should Be Worried About
By ABIGAIL FIELD
Federal Circuit Court Judge Denny Chin just issued an opinion in a consumer class action case that should send chills down the spines of debt collectors, perhaps including foreclosure-mill law firms and their process servers, nationwide.
Judge Chin decided that plaintiffs alleged enough information about the debt collectors in this case — a law firm, a process-serving company and a debt-buying company — to sue them for being a criminal enterprise under the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization (RICO) law. Judge Chin also allowed claims under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
Why should other companies in and related to the debt-collection business be so nervous?
Well, Monique Sykes and the other plaintiffs claim that the defendants’ business model is as follows:
* Buy debt with little documentation that the debt is accurate.
* File lawsuits claiming personal knowledge of the debt but using robo-signed affidavits instead.
* Deliberately fail to tell the “debtor” that the lawsuit is pending (a practice called “sewer service“).
* Get a “default” judgment against the debtor when she fails to show up in court to defend herself.
* Enforce the judgment, including by freezing the debtor’s bank account.
See full articleMonique Sykes et al., Plaintiffs v. Mel Harris
and Associates, LLC, et al.,... more
-
-
When Michelle Bisutti, a 41-year-old family practitioner in Columbus, Ohio, finished medical school in 2003, her student-loan debt amounted to roughly $250,000. Since then, it has ballooned to $555,000.
It is the result of her deferring loan payments while she completed her residency, default charges and relentlessly compounding interest rates. Among the charges: a single $53,870 fee for when her loan was turned over to a collection agency.
"Maybe half of it was my fault because I didn't look at the fine print," Dr. Bisutti says. "But this is just outrageous now."
To be sure, Dr. Bisutti's case is extreme, and lenders say student-loan terms are clear and that they try to work with borrowers who get in trouble.
But as tuitions rise, many people are borrowing heavily to pay their bills. Some no doubt view it as "good debt," because an education can lead to a higher salary. But in practice, student loans are one of the most toxic debts, requiring extreme consumer caution and, as Dr. Bisutti learned, responsibility.
Unlike other kinds of debt, student loans can be particularly hard to wriggle out of. Homeowners who can't make their mortgage payments can hand over the keys to their house to their lender. Credit-card and even gambling debts can be discharged in bankruptcy. But ditching a student loan is virtually impossible, especially once a collection agency gets involved. Although lenders may trim payments, getting fees or principals waived seldom happens.
Yet many former students are trying. There is an estimated $730 billion in outstanding federal and private student-loan debt, says Mark Kantrowitz of FinAid.org, a Web site that tracks financial-aid issues -- and only 40% of that debt is actively being repaid. The rest is in default, or in deferment, which means that payments and interest are halted, or in "forbearance," which means payments are halted while interest accrues.
Although Dr. Bisutti's debt load is unusual, her experience having problems repaying
isn't.
More-------
http://finance.yahoo.com/college-education/article/108846/the-555000-student-loan-burden?mod=edu-continuing_education
http://www.freefinancezone.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/debt-consolidation.jpg
isn't.When Michelle Bisutti, a 41-year-old family practitioner in Columbus, Ohio, finished... more
-
-
Please read this article:
Buffalo's debt collectors accused of bullying - http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Buffalos-debt-collectors-apf-2226423347.html?x=0
Debt Collectors are sub-human, they have no empathy and they will resort to the nastiest strong-arm tactics to get blood from a stone. When people fall into financial peril through no fault of their own... A loss of a job, an illness, or just a plain hitting the wall after using credit to pay for basic needs... These vultures are waiting for the last financially healthy breath of their prey. They don't even care if they've cornered the right person... They’re geared to strike at anyone... They are bullies and have bullied most of their lives; they enjoy it, it's a rush, a high. But for the naive it's unnerving and humiliating. They’ve been conditioned to believe that if they play by the rules... THE RULES will protect them. There was a time when this was true but since the “Party of No” have ruled, all of us have become $$ signs and nothing else. Check out this site for tips, know your rights: http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs27-debtcoll.htm It could happen to you, best be prepared. thinkingblue.blogspot.com
10 Ways Debt Collectors Break The LawPlease read this article:
Buffalo's debt collectors accused of bullying -... more
-
-
In the often murky waters of the debt collection industry, United Recovery Systems in Houston is considered a "whale hunter."
In its search for clients, United isn't looking for mom-and-pop businesses with a few hundred deadbeat customers. It wants bigger fish.
Its client roster includes national banks, international credit card issuers and domestic and foreign auto finance giants, each of whom count on United to make good on their bad accounts.
In the current economic climate, the "whales" are virtually jumping out of the water and into United's boat. A year ago, the company was reeling in $540 million to $560 million in new delinquent accounts each month. This year, it's $937 million, said United's marketing director, Sean Keegan.
Patrick Lunsford, senior editor at InsideARM.com, which chronicles the accounts receivable industry, said the collections industry growth spurt is fueled by several factors, including falling real estate values that left homeowners unable to pay off their debt by tapping their home equity. In addition, more banks are simply giving up on delinquent accounts and declaring them as charge-offs, or losses.
Debt collectors are also in favor because debt buyers aren't paying what they once did for debt portfolios because there's such a glut right now, Lunsford said.
"This time the volume was so huge that we had to run out and hire collectors," said United's Keegan. "I can't put 4,000 accounts in this guy's file box for him to work this month. I have to go hire new people."
After beginning the year with 1,200 debt collectors, United has added 300 more and will add another 300 by year's end. That 50 percent work force growth isn't an aberration.
With bad credit card debt rising, along with foreclosures and job losses, billions of dollars are outstanding on millions of past due accounts, and creditors want their money -- now. Established collection agencies with track records of success are expanding their operations and hiring collectors, managers and support staff to keep up with demand.In the often murky waters of the debt collection industry, United Recovery Systems in... more
-
-
Robert Paisola is one of the leading motivational speakers and consumer advocates of our time. In this Video, Mr. Paisola discusses the Western Capital VIP Program that helps consumers against Debt Collection Agencies and Timeshares like Tahiti Village Distributed by Tubemogul.
allexperts capital com credit mycollector nationwide paisola robert scam tahitti timeshare timeshares village western wwwmycollector.com tahiti robertpaisola vip westerncapitalvip.com nationwidecreditexposed.comRobert Paisola is one of the leading motivational speakers and consumer advocates of... more
-
-
Sometimes people send things into our offices at Western Capital that words can not even begin to explain, and this is absolutely one of those moments. Watch this video of an auto repression in action. Watch as this lady is thrown from her car by the repo man. Listen to the voice mail that she sent to the loan company. And finally listen to the words ring out, We Not Rich Like y'all, but one day this year WE WILL BECAUSE WE HAVE BARACK OBAMA!
(c) Robert Paisola 2009Sometimes people send things into our offices at Western Capital that words can not... more
-
-
In tough economic times, millions of Americans are in debt. Some of them have been contacted by collections agencies.
Many of those interactions have been far less than pleasant for the consumer and, sometimes, they're even illegal.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, consumer complaints about debt collectors are on the rise. Americans have reported being harassed, threatened and even coerced into paying debts that are not their own.
Collections agents often do not work directly for the company to which the consumer owes money. Rather, they are outside professionals with a single goal: collect the outstanding debt.
Buffalo news reporter Fred Williams spent three months working undercover as a collector to see what some collectors are trained to do, and found that some of the tactics were dishonest or illegal.
According to Williams, he was taught to use "implied threats, misrepresentation, pretending to be someone you're not [and] pretending to be law enforcement."
In tough economic times, millions of Americans are in debt. Some of them have been... more
-
