Thanks to changes made to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which came into effect on Tuesday, November 30 and introduced by the Donald Trump administration, Americans They will have to bear the possibility of having their debts collected through social networks.
According to Washington PostAccording to the former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Kathy Kraninger, the new rules are intended to “modernize the legal regime for debt collection.”
The US newspaper highlights that this could lead to new forms of harassment towards consumers who have difficulties to pay, after the loss of their jobs during the pandemic.
At the end of the third quarter of 2021, 77.6 million Americans had at least one debt in collection. Altogether, according to the TransUnion report, total debt is $ 188 billion in outstanding balances.
In favor of these measures, it is argued that one of the office’s missions is to always be one step ahead in modernizing communications with consumers. That is, it seeks to encourage the use of the channels preferred by these.
The limits set by the law
However, consumers can rest easy due to the limits set by law.
For example, companies must send a message request explicitly informing that it is a collection intention. In this way, the consumer will decide whether to accept the communication or not.
Similarly, debt collectors may not post anything about the debt that is visible to the general public or to the consumer’s contacts, friends, or followers.