Debt collection

Capital One Financial Corp. reported delinquencies for its U.S. credit-card business increased in July from June, while its international credit cards delinquencies fell, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Experian Automotive announced Tuesday that quarterly vehicle repossessions dropped by 14.8% to achieve the lowest rate since it began tracking the data seven years ago.

The national credit card delinquency rate (the ratio of borrowers 90 or more days past due) decreased to 0.57% in Q2 2013 from 0.63% in Q2 2012.

First Data Corp. released its SpendTrend analysis for July 2-30, compared with July 3-31, 2012. SpendTrend tracks same-store consumer spending by credit, signature debit, PIN debit, EBT, closed-loop prepaid cards and checks at U.S. merchant locations.

The national mortgage delinquency rate (the rate of borrowers 60 or more days past due) continued its decline in 2013, dropping to 4.09% through the end of the second quarter, nearly 26% lower than the year-ago period. Since last quarter, the mortgage delinquency rate has fallen 10%.

It’s not often that early warnings of future challenges are clear, but it seems that rising interest rates will soon stress a collections operation. Fortunately, with data analytics, firms can prepare and leverage recent gains in compliance and customer experience so that rising delinquencies don’t drive inefficiencies or unnecessary cost increases.

A U.S. district court has halted a collection operation that allegedly extorted payments from consumers by using threats of lawsuits and calculated campaigns to embarrass consumers by unlawfully communicating with family members, friends and coworkers.

Research and Markets, a global market research firm, has announced the release of the "UK Consumer Debt Purchase and Debt Collection: Market Insight" report.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey announced Tuesday that Hampshire Memorial Hospital and Mosaic Finance Solutions, based in North Carolina, will each pay the state $7,500 as part of an agreement, called an assurance of discontinuance, to end illegal collection practices.

A federal judge has found in favor of the Federal Trade Commission in its case against an online operation that illegally debited consumers’ bank accounts when they visited the defendants’ Web sites seeking payday loans.

The Federal Trade Commission has moved to shut down an international network of scammers that sent millions of unwanted text messages to consumers, using the lure of “free” gift cards and electronics to entice consumers into an elaborate scheme designed to take their money and target them for illegal robocalls.

PatientFocus, a medical billing company that deals with patient-pay collections before bad debt, reached an agreement with specialty medical product distributor Choice Medical Inc.

The study quantifies the sizes of each market segment and their historical growth rates, reviews the key factors behind the figures, incorporates input from interviews with industry figures and sets out a market forecast.

In a case against a payday lending operation, a judge has ruled that American Indian tribes are subject to the FTC Act.

Premiere Credit of North America, a collection agency based in Indianapolis, will be adding 100 new jobs to its Batavia, N.Y. call center that opened early last year.

One of the largest privately owned collection agencies in the United Kingdom, known as dlc, has announced the creation of a first-party outsourcing service division to meet the demands of clients.

Americans are projected to owe the federal government $1 trillion in student loan debt as the growth rate soars ahead of credit card debt.

The Federal Trade Commission told a U.S. Senate subcommittee Tuesday that it is cracking down on illegal debt collection practices through a program of vigorous law enforcement, education and public outreach, and research and policy initiatives.

For the second consecutive month, lawsuits citing violations of three key collection laws fell, according to data from U.S. district courts.

The Federal Trade Commission has settled with five companies charged in a joint law enforcement sweep last year that involved millions of illegal pre-recorded robocalls claiming to be from “Rachel” and “Cardholder Services” and pitching credit card interest rate reduction services.