To: President Donald Trump
Demand that Congress Regulate Collection Practises
Stop unlimited use of robo calls that call continously all day, even if they are answered. Make it illegal for collectors to be able to program these calls to place the debtor on hold after they answer and leave them there for long periods, then call them right back if they have to hang up. Require companies who repossess property to at least make a good faith effort to re-sell them for fair market value, and limit their ability to sell them off for next to nothing to their cronies, then continue to pursue the debtor for full contract amounts padded with in accumulated interest and penalties. Require collectors to honor payment commitments and to have to wait to see if that commitment is kept rather than continuing to call every day in the interim. Punish companies who have been told that the debtor they seek cannot be contacted at a particular number and yet they continue to harass the people at that number regardless. It is time for legislation that provides real punitive measures to those who harass and intimidate people who are trying to get back on their feet.
Why is this important?
It is time for the US to regulate the practices of debt collectors. In todays economic climate many good, hardworking people find themselves deep in financial trouble as a result of things they cannot control. Jobs that have been lost or have been replaced with jobs that do not pay a living a wage, reduced or no benefits, rapidly escalating prices of items essential to survival, there are so many people who have worked all their lives and faithfully paid their debts, but now find themselves unable to keep up payments they were able to afford just a few years ago. The resulting feeding frenzy by debt collectors is unprecedented in its savagery. These collectors literally thumb their noses at any notion of fair debt collection practices, and their activities are no less than unlawful harassment of people already pushed to the limit theri circumstances. It is time for the US government to regulate the collection industry and to require debt collectors to treat those who are genuinely trying to pay their debts with the respect that they have earned. Just because people are struggling should not mean they no longer have rights. Yes there is a federal debt collections practises act, but far too many collectors, especially bank employees ignore these practices and laugh at the idea that they have any limits to what they can do.Many companies do not even require their collectors to know there are limits at all.