FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 25, 2020 CONTACT: Alexis Goldstein, alexis@ourfinancialsecurity.org Halt to Student Loan Collections Must Go Back Further, Include All Borrowers Statement from Alexis Goldstein, Senior Policy Analyst, Americans for Financial Reform: Education Secretary DeVos’s announcement that some forced collections will be halted is
Americans for Financial Reform and 62 other organizations sent a letter to members of Congress asking them to implement broad-based, efficient, and effective relief for millions of people and small businesses in the U.S.
AFR and partners sent a letter in support of the package of debt collection bills to strengthen consumer protections for debt collection through broadening the FDCPA’s protections by expanding and clarifying the definition of debt and placing needed limits on collection efforts.
AFR Ed Fund and 230 consumer, civil and human rights, labor, community and legal services organizations from all 50 states and the District of Columbia submitted comment on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB or Bureau) proposed debt collection rules.
AFR Ed Fund and thirty-three other organizations submitted the following comments in response to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)’s notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on Debt Collection Practices (Regulation F).
On September 18, 2019, 43 organizations submitted a comment letter to the CFPB about the need for greater protections for Limited English Proficient (LEP) consumers in the debt collection process.
Strong majorities across parties oppose the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) proposed debt collection rule including medical debt, according to a new poll released by Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) and the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL). The poll was conducted by the bipartisan team of Lake Research Partners and Chesapeake Beach Consulting.
In its proposed rule, CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger is sanctioning consumer harassment by allowing debt collectors to: call consumers seven times per debt, per week; send unlimited emails, texts, and social media messages without consumer consent; allow debt collectors to collect very old “zombie debts” where the time to sue has expired; and file baseless lawsuits by making it easier to sue the wrong consumer, for the wrong amount.
“If you’re one of the millions of Americans who have dealt with constant harassment from debt collectors, you’re going to be dismayed, because the proposed rule expressly authorizes more ways to harass you,” said Linda Jun, senior policy counsel at Americans for Financial Reform.
As we approach the fifth year anniversary of the proposed rulemaking on debt collection, and the regulatory process appears to be moving forward, the 74 undersigned consumer, community, civil rights, faith, labor and legal services groups write to urge the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“Consumer Bureau”) to focus on protecting consumers from abusive debt collection practices in any rule that it issues.