[NOTE that comments reported in this section may have originally been made under another subtopic. Similarly, comments originally made on this subtopic may be reported in another, more relevant section. Information in parentheses comes from commenter response to interest survey; the “servicemember” designation may apply to the commenter or someone in their family. Numbers in parentheses for industry-perspective commenters refer to number of people involved in debt collection in the firm.]
Consumer experiences with calls outside the permitted times:
“I have received calls from debt collectors at 9:30 pm, and I consider this rude. I have also had robocalls early in the morning that woke me up. I am 69 yrs old, and retired, and I sleep late. My health is not good at the moment, so sometimes I have had a bad night - please, please don't wake me up with a robocall.” (62 or older)
“FDCPA 805(a)(1) is routinely violated by at least two large banks--Citicards and Wells Fargo. … I live in the Central Time Zone and no matter where these banks are based, they ignore that and call early and late.”
The time zone problem. Among consumer commenters, there seemed to be agreement that the mailing address provided on the application for credit (or other “address of record”) should be the standard creditors must use for determining permissible times – especially since “people move from one locale to another without changing their [cell phone] area codes.” “[T]here should be reasonable time to call and based upon the time zone you LIVE IN not based on the area code of your mobile phone number.” Commenters debated how easy it was to distinguish land lines from cell phones. Some asserted it couldn’t be done; another asserted, “It is pretty easy to distinguish landline from cellphone -- google the number, that tells you.” No industry-perspective commenters addressed this question.
One commenter (creditor collecting own debts; <20; affiliation with credit union) argued for better information collection, initially, by the creditor: “a break-out of phone types should be part of the ‘Solutions ‘. Example Home designated area, Work designated area and Mobile-cell as well. Three separate 'Solutions" therefore giving an increased likelihood of calls to be within what the statue requires.”
Proposed New time restrictions.
- Weekends. One consumer questioned why there aren’t different time restrictions for weekends. “This past weekend I was woken by a call from Midland Debt Collection at 8:10am on a Sunday morning on my cell phone.” Another agreed, urging that the hours should be noon-5 pm. One commenter urged that Sunday calls should not be permitted at all, on the same theory as “blue laws” prevent certain businesses from Sunday operation.
- Permissible hours. One consumer argued that the permissible calling period should be shortened: Calls should not be permitted before 9 AM and should stop at 8 PM. Another consumer agreed with an earlier cutoff time, telling of his/her experience: “[T]he time that they call is 10pm or 9pm. I believe that is too late to call.” A third consumer suggested: “Creditors should only be allowed to call between the hours of 9am until 7pm local time unless they have written consent (maybe even a web form) that gives them a minimum 3 hour window in which to call.”
Other comments:
(consumer; income beneficiary of an original creditor). “There appears to be a double standard between the debtor and collector. I have received calls after business hours and sometimes even on a Sunday from a mortgage servicer, whom I will not disclose. This particular servicer has even left an anonymous type of flyer (one that can be hung on a doorknob) with instructions to call the specific servicer's customer service phone number; without disclosing the name of the servicer, although I was already familiar with the phone number. I would classify this as mail fraud because it bypassed the mail system. The same scenario with the service of process regarding my old school loan. The service of process bypassed the mail system These are both issues that should be resolved collectively by and among the FCC, FTC and DOJ (not all inclusive). A debt collector can call the debtor from a phone number outside of the collector's company so it won't be included in the company's phone log. If the debtor attempts to return the phone call, the number is either inoperable or not able to receive incoming calls. Collectors may even call a debtor in order to attempt them to give personal information about lowering the interest rate on their credit card (even if the debtor doesn't have a credit card). It is obvious or apparent that there may be a credit card floating around in the debtor's name unknowingly. These are all scenarios I have experienced. We haven't gotten to the subject of sharing a debtor's information among the debtor's financial institution and the financial institution's correspondent institutions and investment advisor affiliates and other business combinations of the debtor (public utilities companies, mortgage servicers, insurance companies, pension fund mgrs, etc...)”
Comments2
Commenting is now closed.
stopwithspoofedcallerID
March 3, 2014 - 3:12pm
The Permissible hours of 9am - 8 pm is good. I actually would like to see it moved to the other proposed time of 9am - 7pm, but i think 8pm is a fair compromise. Because the current 8am - 9pm really is just way to early/late. I (and many families) are in bed after 8pm and phone afer 8pm really is way too late. I support the 9am - 8pm hours. I further support weekend calling lessened to noon-5pm because people like to sleep in on the weekends and spend time with family. Having a phone call after 5pm really is not necessary as most people will be out and/or entertaining guests at their homes and will not take calls in the afternoon. I further support adherence to blue laws that prohibit consumer contact on Sundays. Sundays really are when most people are spending whatever little time they have left before the workweek with friends and family. I do not conduct business on Sundays. The work week really should be when debt collectors are working on trying to contact consumers.
Moderator
March 4, 2014 - 11:07am
Just a reminder that the only question at this point is whether the draft summary missed, or misstated, something relevant in the comments that RegulationRoom participants made before CFPB’s public comment period closed on Friday, Feb. 28.