As I read the CFPB’s report on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), I had a thought about the importance of consumer education, but the futility of current efforts at it.

Today, March 22, 2013, The National List of Attorneys published the white paper on debt collection law in North Dakota written by Joel Boon and Brittney Bornemann, of Rodenburg Law Firm.

Collections professionals have many tools at their disposal, most of which are based on driving results through a phone call. In the era of landline phones, this held true, but now with pervasive mobile phone adoption there are more tools in collectors’ toolkits.  Mobile text as a collections tool offers organizations a simple and effective cross-channel approach that can increase agent productivity and result in a lift in payments.

It’s a common template in most media coverage of the debt collection industry: focus on one consumer’s horror story involving someone trying to collect a debt, perhaps complete with a recording.

According to Equifax’s (NYSE:EFX) latest National Consumer Credit Trends Report, severe derogatory or charged-off balances, the bulk of student loan write-offs, for the first two months of the year hit $3 billion, an increase of more than 36% from same time a year ago ($1.9 billion) while balances in bankruptcy remained level at $0.5 billion.

UK ARM firm Lowell Group has appointed Gary Jones, currently Director of Operations for Lowell Preston, to the new wider role of Director of External Collections for the Group.

Today, March 25, 2013, The National List of Attorneys published the white paper on debt collection law in Ohio, written by Brian Block, the partner in charge of the Consumer/Commercial Collections Practice for Javitch, Block & Rathbone, LLC.

Pat Carroll, a well-known and well respected collection industry veteran passed away unexpectedly on March 2. The outpouring of emotional, heart-felt condolences since his passing has been overwhelming and for good reason

The patchwork of statutes of limitations for consumer debt covering the United States often causes confusion for not only consumers, but also for creditors and debt collectors.

Here we are again! That special time of year when we wear our lucky socks, roll our lucky dice and possibly consult a fortune teller in order to complete our NCAA Men’s Basketball March Madness brackets.

Southwest Credit Systems, LP, a national leader in the receivables management industry

As part of the Federal Trade Commission's ongoing efforts to crack down on illegal, prerecorded "robocalls," the FTC is taking legal action to stop two operations that allegedly enabled telemarketers to place hundreds of millions of illegal prerecorded calls to consumers around the country

Consumer backlash against bank fees, coupled with poor service and unmet customer expectations, has fueled increases in defection rates among customers of large, regional and midsize banks

J.C. Christensen and Associates (JCC), An Array Services Group company, recently launched www.paymystudentbill.com

More consumers filed lawsuits in U.S. district courts against accounts receivable management and related companies in 2011 than in any other year.