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Your debt collectors may soon be adding you on Facebook

rcmaehl

Summary

The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ruled that debt collectors may contact users via Social Media and text message.

 

Quotes

Quote

The federal government has cleared the way for collection agencies to send unlimited texts, emails and even instant messages to debtors on social media platforms. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a final rule late last week outlining...new communication methods. The federal agency... did not limit the number of messages collectors could send, but it did require that each message come with instructions on how to opt out. The bureau also limited the number of times collectors may call someone to seven calls per week. Consumer advocates criticized the rule for not requiring alleged debtors to consent before being contacted by email or text. "This is a terrible time to create more burdens for people who have debts. This certainly does not make it easier for them to recover from the economic hit of the pandemic," Collection calls rank as the biggest pet peeve of American consumers. A CFPB survey from 2017, just 1% of consumers said their preferred method of contact from creditors or collectors was text or social media. But with Americans these days unlikely to answer a call from an unknown phone number, marketers, politicians and other industries have flocked to email and text, which are also cheaper to send than making phone calls. "We're hearing more and more from consumers that they don't want to talk to us on the phone. Nobody does anymore. Everyone communicates with text," said Gonsalves, formerly president of the Association of Credit and Collection Professionals. "There are unfortunately going to be a lot of scammers out there who pretend to be debt collectors, sending messages and emails," said April Kuehnhoff, staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center. 

 

My thoughts

Well, it looks like the friend requests for some people will be rapidly increasing in the coming months. I'm heavily disappointed that they didn't set communication limits though because if there's one thing debt collectors are good at is being annoying, and I'm sure people don't want a text message 15 minutes to an hour about a debt. Regardless, it looks like even debt collecting is being allowed to modernize.

 

Sources

CBS News

US CFPB Ruling

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1 minute ago, Ashley xD said:

i mean... just don't accept the friend request? and mute the text message? no? they aren't forcing you to reply? 

You can message someone on facebook without being friends with them. Additionally, they likely won't text you from the same number each time for text message.

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4 minutes ago, Ashley xD said:

i mean... just don't accept the friend request? and mute the text message? no? they aren't forcing you to reply? 

Agreed. I cant see how ignoring their messages is any worse than ignoring their calls. Blocking them online is also substantially easier than blocking the number they call you from, which is far easier to change.

 

The fact that this opens another avenue to be used by scammers is more scary to me (although I imagine they were already doing this to an extent anyway).

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the best solution here would be to just not get into debt.

 

Edit

Okay people, if you read the thread you will know you don't have to quote this anymore. The us is just a shitty country to get hurt in. Now I know. Please stop quoting this.

Edited by RollinLower
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24 minutes ago, rcmaehl said:

You can message someone on facebook without being friends with them.

If they're silly enough to allow it that is.

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2 minutes ago, RollinLower said:

the best solution here would be to just not get into debt.

Sometimes people go into debt even when they are being careful so its easier said than done. Went into the hospital once and had a single xray and it cost me 3 grand after insurance. Now I had enough savings to cover the cost but it had also took quite a bit of time to save up that much money and had I got that bill when I first started working then it would have been pretty bad. Also I am lucky enough to have my college paid for and come out with no debt but that is often not the case and most people have student loan debt after college 

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4 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

Sometimes people go into debt even when they are being careful so its easier said than done. Went into the hospital once and had a single xray and it cost me 3 grand after insurance. Now I had enough savings to cover the cost but it had also took quite a bit of time to save up that much money and had I got that bill when I first started working then it would have been pretty bad. Also I am lucky enough to have my college paid for and come out with no debt but that is often not the case and most people have student loan debt after college 

i know some debt is probably ineviitable in some scenarios (especially when you don't have universal healthcare) but my point still stands. if you don't want debt collectors stalking you, you should do one of two things:

-don't get into debt

-settle a payment arrangement with the collector.

 

just ignoring the debt won't help. the collector won't just forget about it.

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Just now, Sakuriru said:

Ah, good ole American healthcare.

 

I'm not in debt but I'm one serious unpredictable medical emergency away from one :)

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1 minute ago, RollinLower said:

i know some debt is probably ineviitable in some scenarios (especially when you don't have universal healthcare) but my point still stands. if you don't want debt collectors stalking you, you should do one of two things:

-don't get into debt

-settle a payment arrangement with the collector.

 

just ignoring the debt won't help. the collector won't just forget about it.

Yeah this is quite true. I mean a car loan and a mortgage are both considered debt and most people have them but as long as you make your payments nobody will bother you. 

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1 minute ago, Sakuriru said:

Ah, good ole American healthcare.

 

I'm not in debt but I'm one serious unpredictable medical emergency away from one :)

It sucks when the first thing you think about when you are debating on if you should go to the hospital is not whether or not your physical condition is bad enough but whether its worth wasting a couple grand in medical bills. 

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23 minutes ago, RollinLower said:

the best solution here would be to just not get into debt.

To be fair, it's not always that simple. I make more than enough for house payments, but by the time I get home I'm behind 3 months. They changed their webpage and I need my loan paperwork in front of me to re sign up. Would have been nice to get a fair warning on that one.

I'm not actually trying to be as grumpy as it seems.

I will find your mentions of Ikea or Gnome and I will /s post. 

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Oh to be an americaaannn

good thing I'm fairly good with money lol (not having a "real" Fb account also helps)

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34 minutes ago, Sakuriru said:

I actually just looked it up and my health insurance plan is pretty good so I wouldn't actually be, but not everyone has access to healthcare as good as mine.

its all good on paper until the insurance company decides to fight you on whether or not being able to eat solid food is essential 

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2 hours ago, rcmaehl said:

You can message someone on facebook without being friends with them. 

lol that sucks, why do people even use facebook?

 

2 hours ago, rcmaehl said:

Additionally, they likely won't text you from the same number each time for text message.

eventually they'd run out of phone numbers lmao

 

2 hours ago, tim0901 said:

The fact that this opens another avenue to be used by scammers is more scary to me (although I imagine they were already doing this to an extent anyway).

yeah, but when has legislation in favor of massive corporations ever benefitted the average person?

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2 hours ago, RollinLower said:

the best solution here would be to just not get into debt.

I've been saying that forever.

 

If everyone would just stop spending recklessly and stop aggregating debt, the system would collapse and force the governments to come up with an economic model that might actually work.

 

And of course, I am a bit of a hypocrit, as I have something like 25K in debt from a small credit card, and a student loan for an associates degree.

 

Used to be 35k, but I've paid off like 10k on the student loan.

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2 hours ago, RollinLower said:

e best solution here would be to just not get into debt.

Millions upon millions owe the US government like Trillions of dollars for Student Loans. Most people in the US are in some form of debt. God help you if you need to go to a hospital. Even with insurance you can be put in to debt. 

I just want to sit back and watch the world burn. 

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How will the debt agencies match you to your social media account? What's to stop them from accidentally revealing your debt details to someone else who shares the same name as you on Facebook? What if people impersonate you on Facebook and end up getting access to sensitive financial information?

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35 minutes ago, Trik'Stari said:

I've been saying that forever.

 

If everyone would just stop spending recklessly and stop aggregating debt, the system would collapse and force the governments to come up with an economic model that might actually work.

 

And of course, I am a bit of a hypocrit, as I have something like 25K in debt from a small credit card, and a student loan for an associates degree.

 

Used to be 35k, but I've paid off like 10k on the student loan.

Unless you plan to buy a house upfront and cars as well debt is inevitable. 

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40 minutes ago, Trik'Stari said:

If everyone would just stop spending recklessly and stop aggregating debt,

So you have $100K+ in your back pocket to buy a house? While that sounds expensive the payments for a house is cheaper than renting an Apartment in my area. A 2 bedroom apartment is like $1000 a month. So sometimes it more of a necessity to go in to debt. 

I just want to sit back and watch the world burn. 

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3 hours ago, RollinLower said:

the best solution here would be to just not get into debt.

Just dont go into debt 4head in 2020

 

Thanks mr smarts i will follow u for more financial advice o7

 

 

1 hour ago, Ashley xD said:

lol that sucks, why do people even use facebook?

DAE facebook bad?

 

If you can't think of reasons people would still use facebook in 2020 then lol

 

 

3 hours ago, rcmaehl said:

You can message someone on facebook without being friends with them. Additionally, they likely won't text you from the same number each time for text message.

Yeah all it says is "youve received a message request from xyz" then you can view the message and it only tells them you've read it if you've responded. so you can just click ignore and pretend like nothing happened. honestly i'm surprised this hasn't happened before as an avenue for contact. 

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Text messages kinda makes sense, since most people have a phone and usually that's already on your file and can be obtained easily if you take out a loan.

But considering multiple people can have the same name of social media, unless they specifically know what you look like, I suspect a lot of people will have debt collectors go after them, when they aren't the right person.

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28 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

So you have $100K+ in your back pocket to buy a house? While that sounds expensive the payments for a house is cheaper than renting an Apartment in my area. A 2 bedroom apartment is like $1000 a month. So sometimes it more of a necessity to go in to debt. 

You make a fair point, but I feel the discussion is pointless so long as the purchaser of said property is forced to pay the government for the apparent luxury of owning property. Regardless of whether or not that property is "paid off".

 

Although I don't see how a piece of property can ever be paid off, if you are required to endlessly make payments to another party, else you lose that property, potentially at gun point.

 

(I am not trying to make this political. I don't care who supports it, property tax is a very serious problem that needs to be addressed, and no one talks about it).

 

Currently I pay $500 a month to rent a house alongside two other people. It's a nice house in a perfect location.

 

You know what would be amazing? If I could stop paying $200.00 per paycheck to a third party whose services I do not require, want, or approve of. But I cannot stop paying, for fear of physical violence.

 

4/5ths of my monthly rent are stolen from me. I cannot begin to describe how much better off I would be if I was allowed to keep that money, that I earned.

 

I make less than $30k a year.

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