Debt collection

Complaints about debt collection are growing among service members. There are now more than 11,000 complaints from service members, veterans and military families since the CFPB began accepting them 18 months ago.

IMGCAP(1)]

A San Diego-based debt collector has agreed to pay $675,000 in civil penalties and give up $18 million won in court fights against 4,500 consumers, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Friday.

Debt-buying giant Encore Capital Group Inc. agreed Friday to settle claims that it used improper collection strategies in New York, including obtaining judgments against consumers for debts that were too old to collect.

More than 1,000 North Carolina residents have reported receiving collection calls from an electronic message system that claims to be from the Internal Revenue Service.

Revolving consumer credit, which is mostly made up of credit card loans, fell in November by the largest amount in a year, according to a report Thursday from the Federal Reserve Board.

Charlotte, N.C.-area hospitals have started offering multiyear interest-free payment plans to help reduce the number of outstanding bills as consumers pay more out-of-pocket medical costs.

A phony debt collection scam in Colorado has state regulators warning residents to be aware of callers pretending to be law enforcement or government agency officials.

The sharp nationwide drop in gas prices is allowing more U.S. consumers to stay current on their debts, according to a new report from the American Bankers Association.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., plans in 2015 to continue her focus on student loan debt and the potential long-term problems it poses to the economy despite now facing a Republican-controlled Congress.

Columbia Financial International Inc. announced Wednesday it is awarding $50,000 in grants to the collection industry to be used for education in Fair Debt Collection Practices Act regulations.

Connecticut regulators have fined the head of a Native American tribe and the two payday loan companies it owns a total of $1.5 million for allegedly violating a state cap on interest rates.

U.S. bankruptcy filings totaled 910,090 in 2014, a 12% drop from the 1,032,572 filings in 2013, according to data from American Bankruptcy Institute, provided by Epiq Systems Inc.

Utah-based SecurityNational Mortgage Co. has agreed to a monetary settlement of a claim by Bank of America that it sold the Charlotte, N.C.-based lender defective mortgage loans.

The Colorado Attorney General's office reports that more than 165,000 state residents owed $56 million to payday lenders at the end of 2013 and the number of people taking out such loans is rising, according to an annual report.

National Credit Adjusters LLC, a payday loan company recently targeted in a Pennsylvania enforcement action, agreed Monday to pay nearly $1 million in restitution to New York City residents and stop collecting debts in the city.

Small business borrowers owing money to the Boston Redevelopment Authority's small-business lending arm did not receive regular collection letters even as hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer-financed loans went unpaid, an audit by a federal agency revealed.

Many observers agree that one of the most significant rulemakings slated for this year from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will be on debt collection. Depending on how it structures its proposal, the plan could capture a broad range of companies that have a hand in the credit reporting system.

Credit Karma, a credit management website, last week started offering on-demand access to credit reports from Equifax. It's the second credit report Credit Karma users can view as much as they like.

The CFPB made an announcement in October that caused many consumer advocates to cheer and many bankers to scratch their heads. In short, it's ready to address the decades-old consumer complaint of being rejected for a checking account based on information that they believe is irrelevant, inaccurate or inconvenient.