Approximately 30 million Americans have an average of $1400 debt in collection, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Their proposal: they should police companies with more than $10 million in annual receipts from debt collection. Their goal: help consumers hoping for debt relief to get a break from abusive and unfair debt collectors.

An article in Forbes indicates that the CFPB currently oversees payday lenders, mortgage companies and private student lenders. This next step is significant because since the recession the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the group that normally helps consumers dealing with unscrupulous debt collectors, has not been able to keep up with the rising debt levels and consumer complaints.

The in-depth series by the Wall Street Journal, “The Debt Collectors,” reported that the FTC database received nearly 165,000 complaints as of December 8, 2011. That number is 17% higher than all debt-collection complaints recorded by the FTC for 2010. Add

Read more…

Payday lenders should be forced to limit the rolling over of loans, stop allowing customers to switch from one lender to another, and to share information about their customers with other lenders, the business, innovation and skills committee has recommended.

In a report – which described the payday lending and debt management industry as opaque and poorly regulated – the influential committee said the government should outline a timetable within six months for deciding whether control of consumer credit will be transferred from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), a new regulator replacing the Financial Services Authority.

One of the FCA’s first duties should be to address payday lenders’ use of continuous payment authorities – payment instructions that cannot be ended by the borrower – unless lenders commit to stop using them.

The committee’s chairman, Adrian Bailey MP, said: “During these difficult economic times, increasing numbers of people up and down the country – not least some of the most vulnerable members of our society – are relying on the provision of consumer debt management services and payday loans to make ends meet.

“And yet this industry remains opaque and poorly regulated. Despite a g

Read more…

Consumers who want to have a more convenient way to make payments and even keep better tabs on their credit card debt may soon have a number of options available to them.

As more companies enter the mobile credit card payment system industry, the quality, convenience and ubiquity of these systems is likely to improve considerably, and fortunately for all involved, there is a considerable amount of interest in pushing this new payment method, according to a report from USA Today. Businesses from mobile phone service providers to payment processing giants to smaller startups are jumping into the game, but experts say that they have to do all they can to make adoption as easy as possible right off the bat.

Experts have viewed adoption as the largest hurdle mobile payments will have to clear in the early stages of being widely available, and companies are working to incentivize use, the report said. Read more…

Bailiffs chasing debts may be able to increase the fees they charge some debtors from £42.50 to £305 if government proposals come into force.

The coalition has opened a consultation it said was designed to “provide a major legal overhaul of the bailiff industry”, but Citizen’s Advice said the proposals do not go far enough and could even cost some debtors more.

The proposals, which aim to make minor amendments to the yet-to-be implemented Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, proposes bailiffs be allowed to charge householders an enforcement fee of £305 in the case of unpaid council tax.

Council tax bills in arrears is by far the biggest category of debt chased by bailiffs. Ci

Read more…

During the recession, millions of consumers shied away from using their credit cards on a regular basis due to financial concerns that forced them to reassess their debt relief plans. But now, after many may have been able to successfully reduce debt, consumers are returning to credit use.

Visa recently announced that in the final three months of last year, the amount of card use, and spending, it observed rose significantly on a year-over-year basis. The number of transactions the company processed climbed 8 percent from 2010s total to 13.6 billion, and the amount of money spent on its branded debit, credit and prepaid cards jumped 11 percent to a total of more than $994 billion.

Recent studies have suggested that the new surges in card spending have to do with consumers continuing to move away from using cash to complete purchases, instead relying on credit and debit. Read more…