InsideARM (collection) did NOT approve my comment about FDCPA and FCRA amendments
My polite and constructive comment at InsideARM with the WIN - WIN solution, drastically lowering the need for collectors to abuse and harass debtors while INCREASING payments by debtors was NOT approved.
My InsideARM comment is posted here:
My post at InsideARM (collections) about FCRA and FDCPA amendments
It’s a NO BRAINER:
Amend the FCRA to require DELETION of paid collections.
Of course there will be people who won’t pay their debts because they have no money. And some take my advice to STOP paying their credit cards because they are essentially judgment-proof and/or their credit is shot anyway and/or it’s too much of a hassle to try to get the credit they deserve because the CRAs won’t correct and the “justice” system is a giant cesspool with little chance of justice for consumers unless they are wealthy.
So, yes, there will still be abuse and harassment.
That’s why I also propose FDCPA amendments such as limiting the number of calls and MINIMUM statutory damages for EACH violation, similarly to the TCPA (junk fax/telemarketing law).
I’m very disappointed to see that InsideArm chose to censor my comment.
From the InsideARM commenting guidelines http://www.insidearm.com/go/comments-policy:
Why might my comment not be approved?
Comments of all varieties are encouraged. However, we reserve the right to reject your comments if they are deemed offensive or fall out of convention for what is appropriate for blogs (e.g. off-topic, aggressive, promotional, etc).
Is my comment OFFENSIVE? It certainly wasn’t promotional, aggressive or off-topic. I responded to an article about collection related FTC complaints.
The collection leadership is not only interested in cash.
They’re in the collection business not just to make money, but they are psychopaths feeding off misery. I’m NOT talking about the individual collectors, but the EXECUTIVES, the leadership. People like Mike Ginsberg who wrote the article on the FTC complaints. From his bio:
… Mike is a member of the board of the Institute of Merger and Acquisition Professionals (IMAP), a member of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), and a member of the American Collectors Association(ACA). He also serves as an expert witness, and sits on the advisory boards of several industry associations and publications. Mike was previously employed by a prominent investment firm, where he was a marketing specialist. ...
Mike Ginsberg should serve life in prison for the atrocities he promotes and defends.
They relish the power to destroy lives. That’s what it’s all about.
Last night I watched and rated all ACA (collection industry association) youTube videos:
Blatant lies in the videos:
$354 will buy me 100 gallons of milk? Yeah right. I pay about $3.25 for HALF a gallon of milk on sale.
It is simply not true that the money collected will save you $354 a year.
In fact, money collected for corporations will go to the executives and shareholders. Corporations are NOT owned by the customers.
Of course they also did not approve my comment at youTube. I wish they would put a notice with the comments when they’re subject to approval. I’m tired of wasting my time writing censored comments.
Debt Collectors Giving You Free Gasoline?
This video documents how IMPORTANT it is to change the FDCPA and FCRA. A paint store owner explains how it’s getting tough to stay solvent and how they have to assign delinquent accounts to attorneys and collectors sooner.
It doesn’t occur to the owner of Abbott Paint that his contractor customers are paying their accounts late because they have fewer jobs with lower profits?
He advertises COLLECTORS instead of opposing the bailout, supporting candidates with SOLUTIONS and actually doing something to help the PEOPLE.
http://www.abbottpaint.com/about.htm
He might learn the hard way that you can’t squeeze blood out of turnips.
Debt Collector Stories: Episode 1
Is this an actress or a debtor who got paid many $$$ for this pathetic performance?
Ask Doctor Debt on FOX 9
Fox news interviewing a collection industry association executive giving HORRIBLE advice to consumers.
ALERT: FALSE information about FICO scores:
1) Your FICO score will NOT go up if you pay your credit cards a week early. Neither the payment date nor the due date are reported to the credit bureaus. DUH!
2) Getting a credit card EARLY in life does NOT lower scores, but increases scores.
A CreditFactors subscriber has a 710 FICO score only 13 months after filing for bankruptcy. That’s primarily because of old accounts.
It’s UNBELIEVABLE that they dare to spew these lies. “Doctor Debt” should go to jail for malpractice.
Posted by Christine on 09/27/2008 at 12:26 AM
2008 FCRA / FDCPA proposed changes • (2) Comments • Permalink
Even as an experienced civil litigation attorney and Consumer Law “advocate” who is often accused as being too sympathetic with consumers, I respectfully but completely disagree with your characterization of the ICS voicemail as “harassment”. At the very most it was annoying and unwanted [and it doesn’t qualify as a prohibited pre-recorded call under the TCPA, I don’t believe, nor do I think it violates of any of the FDCPA provisions.
Moreover, I’m always a bit perplexed by consumers’ tendency to focus on allegedly abusive (debt-related) telephone calls. As with SPAM, it’s so easy to just ignore all such calls; most people have Caller ID technology that at the very least will or should identify the number, if not the identity, of the caller [and one can usually choose to have a feature to block “unknown” calls], and thus why answer unwanted/unfamiliar calls at all?
About 80%+ of the telephone calls I receive are annoying/unwanted, and about 50% of those are unlawful [violate the TCPA by virtue of being pre-recorded commercial solicitations]. And while I often do take action against the latter, I think there is a distinct difference between annoying calls and unlawful calls.
To be sure, I always advise my clients to avoid communicating verbally with anyone at any time and at any cost about debt/credit or any other important business matter, as I equate the value of such communications as virtually meaningless. And in the extremely unlikely event one feels compelled to communicate verbally, I suggest that one ALWAYS follow up with written correspondence [whether fax, letter or email] wherein the writer states he or she is writing to “confirm our telephone conversation on such and such date wherein you stated such and such...Please let me know immediately if I have misstated or misconstrued anything herein; otherwise I will assume you do not dispute same”, or something to that effect.
Finally, I have a friendly word of advice to you personally Christine (and I think it’s important and relevant enough that you include it in my post) based on my periodic perusal of your formal comments/posts over the years: while most are not necessarily openly hostile or offensive, many contain an air of “unpolishedness”, if you will. In other words, they readily appear - in my view anyway - to be written by a non-professional who does not take a great deal of time or care with her choice of words, grammar, etc. Perhaps that’s why clients sometimes don’t understand why a “simple” letter of mine takes me 2-4+ hours to draft (and this post should not be construed as containing any such precision). I continuously get compliments - often by opposing counsel - on the quality and organization of my writing, and I think it pays off.
So when, for example, an organization such as InsideARM chooses to reject or edit your comments, perhaps that is indicative of not so much the overall content, but rather the imprecision with/in which it is written. My hunch is that if you avoided using phrases like “psychopaths feeding off misery” - a phrase that immediately conveys the author as what I can only best describe as “unsophisticated” (to put it nicely) - your input would be MUCH better received and productive. I mean most of your posts are really nothing more than rambling diatribes with constructive criticism only sprinkled in here and there. And I also know that you DO often have some insightful and worthwhile comments, but they’re often so muddled and negated by the surrounding babble that you thwart those who would otherwise be receptive readers.
Auden L. Grumet, Esq.
The Law Office of Auden L. Grumet, LLC
Atlanta, GA
[AS ALWAYS, NOTHING HEREIN IS INTENDED AS OR SHOULD BE CONSTRUED TO BE OFFICIAL LEGAL ADVICE AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON AS SUCH]
I apologize for my “rambling diatribes”, but apparently you don’t realize that the primary purpose of this blog is NOT to find receptive readers, but to chronicle my credit, collection and litigation experiences.
You may not like my writing, but at least you didn’t accuse me of lies as in those ACA propaganda videos.
Please rewrite my proposal for FDCPA changes so that it WILL be approved at InsideARM.
Auden, I certainly appreciate all the help I can get from consumer law “advocates.”
We need professionals like you, thank you!!!
