I Have Hope Because of What I’ve Seen From the Inside

In my experience, those who seek political office usually come in two basic “flavors.” There are those who aspire to great power and influence; and those that aspire to serve.

The pleasant irony is that those who serve best are often the ones that end up with the most power and influence.

I believe there will be no better current example of this than the Massachusetts Senator Elect, Elizabeth Warren. Ms. Warren has gone from a middle class upbringing as elementary school teacher to respected Harvard professor and tireless crusader to reform Wall Street, in order to better protect the average American. She is today’s “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

Even before she takes office she has sat down with me to work on debt collection problems. Our meeting could have been the typical perfunctory meeting politicians have all the time. It was anything but. What most people will never see or know is her level of engagement and desire to fix problems. You heard it here first, she is going to be a phenomenal and important Senator.

Though in the coming weeks we face the daunting “fiscal cliff,” I am steadfastly heartened and hopeful about our county’s future. With thoughtful, caring (and tough) people like Ms. Warren working on our behalf, I know everything is going to work out just fine.

 

Bill

Hi, I'm Bill Bartmann and I am on a mission to reform the debt collection industry in America. Please join with me as we bring a petition to Washington D.C., and make Congress close all the legal loopholes in debt collection practices. It's time to stop these debt collection abuses and stop these criminals. Join with me! Sign the petition today! http://stopthesecriminals.com/petition

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My Dream — 10 Doses of Common Sense For Debt & Debt Collecting

Fixing the hurt and anguish on all sides of the debt collection equation is many things, but one thing it is not is complicated. Like one of my heroes, Martin Luther King, I too have a dream. While I can’t state mine as eloquently as Rev. King, my dream has similarities in its goal of ending oppression for a group of 30 million citizens who have little voice and next to no ability to fight back.

 I dream that one day…..

1.     People will only borrow what they are confident they will be able to repay.

2.     Lenders will only lend to those that have the ability to repay.

3.     We’ll all understand that having problems that impacts a persons ability to repay a loan does not make them a bad person.

4.     If someone can’t (not won’t) repay as planned both sides would automatically, and willingly, sit down and restructure the repayment according to the borrowers ability to repay.

5.     When the borrowers financial situation improves, both sides would again, automati

cally, sit down and voluntary restructure the repayment plan to match the borrowers new ability to repay.

6.     Collectors would never call more frequently than once a day and a couple times a week.

7.     Collectors would speak to their borrowers in the same manner and degree of help

fulness as a Nordstrom employee would speak to their customers.

8.     Collectors would never sue. They’d realize that if the above steps are followed, giving a person who can’t pay another piece of paper telling them what they owe, is senseless.

9.     Collectors would be fined and lose their ability to be in the collections business if they deliberately lie, deceive, harass, intimidate, shame or otherwise coerce borrowers into paying.

10.  Borrowers would be able and collectors would be required to record all collection calls to be able to monitor and enforce proper collector behavior.

I believe we can achieve this…and, with the CFPB on the job, with it’s heart in the right place, I think we can do it in 2 years!

 

 

Bill

Hi, I'm Bill Bartmann and I am on a mission to reform the debt collection industry in America. Please join with me as we bring a petition to Washington D.C., and make Congress close all the legal loopholes in debt collection practices. It's time to stop these debt collection abuses and stop these criminals. Join with me! Sign the petition today! http://stopthesecriminals.com/petition

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You’ve Heard of Robo-Signing, Now Meet Robo-Testimony

In yesterdays New York Times the always thorough Jessica Silver-Greenberg dives into the newest mess facing credit card debt collection – robo-testimony.  

As lenders and 3rd party collectors employ a strategy of “sue ‘em all and let the courts sort them out” you’ve got a problem that is best described by this quote from civil court judge Noach Dear who has presided over as many as 100 of these case PER DAY. 

“I would say that roughly 90 percent of the credit card lawsuits are flawed and can’t prove the person owes the debt.” 
~ Noach Dear, Brooklyn civil court judge

Read Ms. Silver-Greenberg’s article and tell me you don’t agree something needs to be done. As for the solution, a good starting point is with what California State Senator, Mark Leno, has proposed.

Bill

Hi, I'm Bill Bartmann and I am on a mission to reform the debt collection industry in America. Please join with me as we bring a petition to Washington D.C., and make Congress close all the legal loopholes in debt collection practices. It's time to stop these debt collection abuses and stop these criminals. Join with me! Sign the petition today! http://stopthesecriminals.com/petition

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Al Franken is the Senate’s Biggest Debt Reform Advocate

I always loved Al Franken as a comedian. Saturday Night Live was never better than when he was there.

Now I’ve fallen in love with him as a Senator. Actions always speak louder than words and his actions show him to be a man of principle, not a politician who busies himself just playing politics.

In 2010 I took note when Sen. Franken took up the cause of debt collection reform by introducing legislation dubbed “The End Debt Collector Abuse Act” which was an attempt to update the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), the prevailing law regulating debt collection activities. 

Unfortunately it failed and, in the interim, debt collection abuse has gotten significantly worse. 

If Sen. Franken didn’t really care about helping the neediest among us and reforming the broken debt collection industry, that would have been the end of it. Forever he would be able to tell constituents “I tried” — giving him the bona fides to prove himself pro-consumer.

That’s not what happened.

This summer Senator Franken has updated and reintroduced the bill, which is now called “End Debt Collector Abuse Act of 2012.” One of the parts I like the most is the increased information debt collectors will be required to present when trying to collect a debt. Because of shoddy record keeping, many 3rd party debt collectors employ the method of “sue ‘em all and let the courts sort ‘em out.” This legislation would go a long way to ending that abuse by requiring information in the validation letter to include:
  • The date of the last payment made and amount of the debt at the time of that payment
  • Itemization of principal, fees and interest making up the debt, including any charges imposed since the date of the last payment
  • Disclosure of the consumer’s right to request the collector cease communication and to have collection efforts cease under certain circumstances already set forth within the FDCPA 
  • Identification of a person at the debt collector responsible for handling complaints
Additionally it clears up the loophole of mistreatment by creditors (not just 3rd party collectors.) And, importantly, the debt no longer has to be overdue for the regulations to apply.

All very good, useful and appropriate changes. 

While I’m not so Pollyanna to think that given the proximity to the election that it will get passed now, we should all appreciate Sen. Franken for keeping the issue alive and public.  

This way, maybe the 3rd time will be the charm.

Bill

Hi, I'm Bill Bartmann and I am on a mission to reform the debt collection industry in America. Please join with me as we bring a petition to Washington D.C., and make Congress close all the legal loopholes in debt collection practices. It's time to stop these debt collection abuses and stop these criminals. Join with me! Sign the petition today! http://stopthesecriminals.com/petition

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Talking CFPB with Bankrate.com

I was interviewed the other day by Janna Herron who writes for the Credit Card Blog at Bankrate.com. We discussed the CFPB, their regulatory moves and what could happen to debt collectors this fall.

You can read it all here –  http://www.bankrate.com/financing/credit-cards/a-debt-collector-talks-cfpb/

Bill

Hi, I'm Bill Bartmann and I am on a mission to reform the debt collection industry in America. Please join with me as we bring a petition to Washington D.C., and make Congress close all the legal loopholes in debt collection practices. It's time to stop these debt collection abuses and stop these criminals. Join with me! Sign the petition today! http://stopthesecriminals.com/petition

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Illinois Debtors Prison Bill Becomes Law

One of the most egregious injustices in the debt collection industry, the Illinois legal loophole that allowed delinquent borrowers to actually be thrown in jailed, has now been corrected primarily thanks to the hard work and skill of Attorney General Lisa Madigan. 

This past Wednesday Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed into law HB 5434, known as “The Debtors Rights Act of 2012,” which has among its provisions, banned the jailing of debtors who have missed a court mandated payment.

“It is outrageous to think in this day and age that creditors are manipulating the courts, even threatening jail time, to extract whatever they could from people who could least afford to pay—veterans, the unemployed, seniors who rely solely on their benefits to get by each month. This law corrects that gross oversight and puts a stop to throwing people in jail for being poor while still allowing fair debt collection when people have the means to pay their debts.”

        ~ Lisa Madigan, Attoney General, Illinois

Perfectly said.

Getting a law passed is never easy or a foregone conclusion, regardless of how great the need. This is why citizens of IL should recognize what Attorney General Madigan and Governor Quinn have accomplished. It is a notable achievement.

Bill

Hi, I'm Bill Bartmann and I am on a mission to reform the debt collection industry in America. Please join with me as we bring a petition to Washington D.C., and make Congress close all the legal loopholes in debt collection practices. It's time to stop these debt collection abuses and stop these criminals. Join with me! Sign the petition today! http://stopthesecriminals.com/petition

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An Impactful Solution to the Jobs Mess

As reported by the NY Times yesterday, Obama and Romney are pointing blame at each other for the lack of jobs here at home.

Unfortunately, the reality is that there is no single “silver bullet” solution to high unemployment. That said there are many individual actions that can be easily taken that would each, in and of themselves, be impactful. Let me share one:

Require U.S. collection companies to exclusively use U.S. employees when collecting debts incurred within the U.S.

This one reasonable, common sense solution would repatriate easily over 100,000  jobs that are now coming from outsourced  cheap labor overseas. Even better, it could be done without any legislation or regulation at all. All that would need to happen is banks and other firms who use collection companies, just require those companies to use a U.S. labor force.

Clean. Easy. Simple.

The resistance will not come from the banks and other firms that use collection companies. In fact, they’ll almost be unanimously  in favor because their customers are beyond aggravated by being contacted by foreigners that they can barely understand.

Yes, however, this would require debt collection firms like mine to incur significantly higher labor costs. We’d just be forced to run our operations that much more efficiently. Not impossible. And, isn’t that small sacrifice worth it to help put millions of our fellow citizens back to work?

I think it is.

Bill

Hi, I'm Bill Bartmann and I am on a mission to reform the debt collection industry in America. Please join with me as we bring a petition to Washington D.C., and make Congress close all the legal loopholes in debt collection practices. It's time to stop these debt collection abuses and stop these criminals. Join with me! Sign the petition today! http://stopthesecriminals.com/petition

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The Height of Debt Collector Cajones – A Fake Courtroom

When it comes to con artist audacity, Bernie Madoff has nothing on Michael J. Covatto, president of Unicredit America, the (fortunately) now defunct collections firm from Erie, Pennsylvania.

According to Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Linda Kelly Unicredit America (also called Unicredit Debt Resolution Center) decorated a company office to look like a courtroom and then held “hearings” designed to intimidate and frighten debtors into making payments or surrendering valuables. 

The scam went so far as to hand deliver court appearance notices by a person disguised to look like a sheriff’s deputy, which conveyed (not so subtly) that they would be taken into custody if they failed to show up for their “court” appearance.

These fictitious court proceedings were used to intimidate consumers into providing access to bank accounts, make immediate payments or surrendering vehicle titles and other assets – sometimes dispatching Unicredit employees to consumers’ homes in order to retrieve documents or have consumers sign payment agreements.

Fortunately an Erie judge has put an end to this by banning Covatto from the debt collection business in Pennsylvania. Soon there will be another hearing to determine what should be paid to victims and the state in the way of penalties.

This is a good first step, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough. At minimum what should happen includes:
  • Covatto and all associates should be banned from the debt collection in the UNITED STATES, not just Pennsylvania. Erie is within spitting distance of Ohio, if Covatto wanted he could literally walk across the border to Cleveland, set up a shingle and do it all over again. Pennsylvania is safe from this predator, the other 49 states need to be too.
  • There should be criminal charges filed. What has happened so far is all civil, and by declaring bankruptcy (which he has) Mr. Covato may likely escape making meaningful restitution for his misdeeds. 

Anyone with kids knows that threat of real and enforced punishment does wonders for modifying behavior. Let debt collectors engaging in this kind of activity stare jail time in the face and I suspect they may choose a more enlightened path.

Bill

Hi, I'm Bill Bartmann and I am on a mission to reform the debt collection industry in America. Please join with me as we bring a petition to Washington D.C., and make Congress close all the legal loopholes in debt collection practices. It's time to stop these debt collection abuses and stop these criminals. Join with me! Sign the petition today! http://stopthesecriminals.com/petition

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NY AG Cleans Up Dirty Debt Collectors, Gives One the Death Penalty

Debt collectors who play fast and loose with the rules are finding New York state the wrong place to do business.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman just lowered the boom on two firms, fining one $175,000 and barring the other from doing business in the state of New York.
“More and more debt collectors are giving their businesses names that mimic law firms as a way to deceive individuals into thinking they are in legal trouble. Predatory scams that prey on Western New Yorkers will not be tolerated,” said Attorney General Schneiderman. “These settlements put dishonest businesses that engage into deceptive practices on notice. Our office will prosecute unscrupulous debt collectors to the fullest extent of the law.”

 The first settlement was with John Chebat, who for some curious reason operates a slew of debt collection businesses in the Buffalo area, including Western New York Capital, Inc.; International Asset Group, LLC; Unified Asset Solutions, LLC; Outsourced Legal Prep, LLC; Argos Alliance Group, LLC; and Check Systems Recovery, LLC.

The Attorney General’s office required Chebat pay $175,000 in penalties and change his debt collection practices after an investigation revealed that his collectors:

Illegally contacted the employers of consumers

  • Illegally sent verification of employment forms to employers demanding information to which they were not entitled to. For example, they demanded social security numbers of consumers.
  • Illegally sent letters to consumers on the letterhead of a local attorney.
  • Falsely representing to consumers that, if they did not settle a debt, their case would be referred to a “nationwide network of attorneys” or in-house counsel.
  • Engaged in Caller ID spoofing, the practice of causing a fictitious local number to be displayed on consumer’s caller ID, including local court phone numbers.
  • Falsely represented to consumers that they were process servers and were about to serve consumers with legal process.
  • Falsely represented to consumers that if they did not settle the debt, Chebat would pursue them “according to [the consumer's] Bad Check Laws”
  • Falsely implied to consumers that they had taken civil judgments when they had not.
In addition to paying $175,000, Chebat must install a system that permits him to monitor the calls of his collectors without their knowledge, monitor his collectors on a regular basis, bar his employees from engaging in spoofing and representing that they are process servers, and appoint a compliance officer responsible for ensuring that Chebat’s collectors comply with the law.

The second settlement shows what will happen to Chebat if he doesn’t follow through.
Frank Davis’ collection business called “The Lombardo Davis Goldman Firm, LLC” has been shut down and Mr. Davis has been barred from participating in any debt collection business in New York State. 

The name of the company was misleading because it mimicked a law firm’s name and Davis’ website compounded that deception by including the photo of a gavel and law books and making reference to litigation experts. In an agreement made last year with the Attorney General’s office, Davis was ordered to stop using a name that mimicked an unrelated law firm’s name and install a monitoring system of his employees to discourage them from engaging in improper and illegal conduct. Davis was further required to pay $20,000 in penalties.

In early 2012, the Attorney General’s office investigated Davis again and learned that he violated the original settlement. Davis again was using a name that mimicked a law firm name. He failed to disclose to the Attorney General that he changed the name and location of his business. Davis failed to monitor his employees to assure that they were complying with the law. 

Maybe he didn’t think the Attorney General was serious?
Schneiderman-esque investigations and prosecutions of bad apple debt collectors is exactly what is needed to provide a much needed deterrent for deceitful collection behavior. However, it’s unfortunate that barring a collector from one state does nothing to stop them from setting up shop in the other 49. I suspect it won’t be too long until we see Mr. Davis practicing his “craft” a state not under the jurisdiction of Mr. Schneiderman. Or maybe I’m just getting cynical?

Bill

Hi, I'm Bill Bartmann and I am on a mission to reform the debt collection industry in America. Please join with me as we bring a petition to Washington D.C., and make Congress close all the legal loopholes in debt collection practices. It's time to stop these debt collection abuses and stop these criminals. Join with me! Sign the petition today! http://stopthesecriminals.com/petition

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The Best Way to Stay Sane During Debt Collector Carpet Bombing

If you’ve ever fallen behind on your bills, it may seem that the phone won’t stop ringing. Usually that’s not an illusion, the phone IS ringing incessantly. I’ve heard 40-50 times a day is not uncommon. Much of the time these will be automated calls, with a human being quickly hoping on the phone once you’ve picked up. This collection call “carpet bombing” is enough to drive the best of us to the brink.

However there is a solution.

It won’t solve your financial issues, but it will keep you sane and give you some peace and quiet to rationally plan out your next moves. It’s a high tech caller ID device with ring controller. With this little device you can program your phone NOT to ring whenever calls associated with collectors come in.

If collectors can use technology to call you 50 times a day, no reason why you can’t use technology to silence them!

Bill

Hi, I'm Bill Bartmann and I am on a mission to reform the debt collection industry in America. Please join with me as we bring a petition to Washington D.C., and make Congress close all the legal loopholes in debt collection practices. It's time to stop these debt collection abuses and stop these criminals. Join with me! Sign the petition today! http://stopthesecriminals.com/petition

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