Consumer groups are dismayed that President Barack Obama wants Congress to make it easier for debt collectors to call the cellphones of Americans who are late on their student loans. Currently, it is a violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act for a debt collection agency to automatically dial cell phone numbers and play pre-recorded messages. The administration believes that allowing collectors to "robo-call," and/or use pre-recorded messages on cellphones to contact those who owe the government money will contribute to the reduction of the Federal deficit under the $3 trillion deficit-reduction plan the president submitted to congress.
The services DES provides are based on the principles and practices of the National Consumer Law Center. "Enabling robo-calls (to cellphones) is just going to lead to more harassment and abuse, and it's not going to help the government collect more money," said Lauren Saunders of the NCLC.
I couldn't agree more. We know from experience that people *want* to pay their debt. If they had the money, they *would* pay their debts. People are out of jobs, have had hours cut back, have had businesses fail and all sorts of secondary fallout from the economic downturn. Harassing people and using up their cellphone minutes is not going to make a difference.
Collection agencies, not surprisingly, are in favor of the proposed change, citing the fact that more and more Americans no longer have landlines and that allowing automatic dialing would make their job more efficient. Collection agencies would like to be able to use automatic dialing for *all* debt collection. Even if they collected no more debt than they currently do, it would enable them to cut costs and increase profits on what is already a very profitable business.
Legislation that would allow collectors to robocall cellphones for all debt collection purposes was introduced in the House last week. If you are against this proposed legislation, please contact your Representative and let him or her know how you feel.