Darren Waggoner

Bill Bartmann's fast rise and fall in the debt-buying industry is an epic tale that many thought ended nearly a decade ago. But Bartmann is determined to keep the story going.

The Federal Trade Commission has filed contempt charges against a promoter of credit repair and debt relief services and three of his companies, alleging that they continued their deceptive marketing practices in violation of a federal court order.

A Texas woman suing a collection agency claims it threatened to garnish her to collect on a delinquent account.

The Federal Trade Commission has mailed 1,410 refund checks totaling an estimated $2.3 million to consumers allegedly defrauded by Home Assure LLC, a so-called mortgage foreclosure rescue service.

The state of Washington's Department of Financial Institutions ordered Home Credit Law Center, a California mortgage loan modification firm, to stop operating in the Evergreen State.

Experian PLC this week unveiled a model to help lenders comply with the new Federal Reserve Board rule that requires issuers to consider only applicants' individual, not household, incomes.

Credit Collections Defense Network, a debt settlement business based in Chicago, is banned from doing business in West Virginia.

West Asset Management Inc., the debt collection unit of West Corp., has agreed to pay $2.8 million to settle charges it used aggressive collection methods that violated federal law, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

A fugitive debt collector from Buffalo, N.Y., has been captured near downtown Pittsburgh. Tobias W. Boyland faces 15 years in prison after his conviction on weapons charges last year.

Collectors increasingly are hounding consumers for unsubstantiated debt, according to a report issued Thursday by Consumers Union and the East Bay Community Law Center.

U.S. consumers' average credit score slipped a point in the past year, to 668, and credit card debt fell by 8%, to $7,404, during the same period, according to data from Credit Karma Inc.

Credit card delinquencies are expected to drop sharply again in 2011, continuing a large decline that began in the second half of 2010, the credit bureau TransUnion LLC has predicted.

Unicredit America Inc., an Erie, Pa., collection agency, collected money from unsuspecting consumers by pretending to hold hearings in a room decorated to look like a courtroom, according to a lawsuit filed Friday against the company in Pennsylvania.

Friedman & Wexler, a collection law firm in Chicago that ceased doing business in July, has been ordered by a Cook County, Ill., judge to pay a $23.7 million judgment to the state.

An estimated 409 different collection agencies and creditors were sued in the first half of September, down from an estimated 534 in the second half of August and 426 in the first half of August, according to data from U.S. District Courts.

With all of the problems in the mortgage industry, a new study appears to show that being 60 days late on mortgage payments is not as big of a concern as it used to be.

American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc. of Coppell, Texas, faces charges by Texas investigators of using unlawful and aggressive collection tactics and improperly misleading homeowners, according to Attorney General Greg Abbott's office.

New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo has announced criminal charges against a man who allegedly ran a collection agency while in federal prison on unrelated charges.

The municipal and government debt collector Gila Corp. has been acquired by Owners Resource Group, an Austin private-equity company.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday an investigation into predatory health care lending that misleads consumers and pushes them into debt.