Recently, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the lead regulatory body for debt collection in the U.S., has stated that it will soon issue a new rule that will limit the number of phone calls debt collectors can make to consumers, and that will push modern communication platforms, such as email and text messaging, as the primary channels for debt collectors.
The proposed new rule holds a significant impact on the practices of debt collectors, especially of 3rd-party debt collection agencies. According to the Wall Street Journal, the number of individuals with an account in the third-party collection was 25 million in 2018 – the majority of which have experienced aggressive collection tactics, which mostly include frequent calls, even when they’re in the workplace. Over 10,000 lawsuit are filed each year against debt collectors because such practice allegedly violates the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act of 1977 (FDCPA).
While the new rule might already be overdue considering the grievances that the consumers have endured, it also presents new challenges for debt collection agencies who are only recording and monitoring phone calls but do not yet have the capabilities to capture and record mobile SMS.
Text Message Recording and Call Monitoring for FDCPA Compliance
With debt collectors expected to move away from telephone calls to mobile texting, it will become imperative for these companies to understand when and how they should capture text messages, and for how long.
The FDCPA, together with Unfair, Deceptive, and Abusive Acts or Practices (UDAAP) are regulations that regulate interactions between debt collectors and debtors. They basically protect the consumer in several ways:
- Evidence – Consumers can demand a proof that they owe money.
- Harassment – Debt collectors are prohibited from harassing, oppressing, or abusing the debtor by using threats of harm or profane language, or by repeatedly calling them to cause annoyance.
- False Statements – Debt collectors should not make untruthful statements when collecting a debt.
- Misrepresentation – Collectors are not allowed to pretend to be someone else, such as law enforcement agents, attorneys, or credit reporting officials.
- Unfair Practices – Collectors are not allowed to engage in unfair collection practices, such as collecting more than the consumer owes, or the state allows, or even contacting the debtor with a postcard.
- Misleading Threats – Collectors are prohibited from threatening consumers with legal actions that are not permitted.
- Wage Garnishment – Collectors cannot garnish wages or bank accounts without a court order.
- Misleading Correspondence – Debt collectors are not allowed to give false information about debtors to anyone and cannot send information that looks like a government or court document to debtors if it is not one.
- Right to Sue – If collectors violate the Act, consumers can sue them individually or through a class action.
CFPB clarifies that text messages are still subject to the same general rules for other types of communication under the FDCPA. Moreover, under the proposed rule, debt collectors will only be able to call consumers 7 times a week, between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m. This puts even more pressure for compliance officers in debt collection agencies to monitor the phone calls of their collectors and ensure that they do not exceed this limit set by the new rule.
Proving compliance with these FDCPA Rule of Conduct are already challenging when the debt collectors’ primary communication channel is still telephone calls. With the new rule, it is expected to become more difficult as many debt collectors still do not have the system in place that can archive and monitor both mobile SMS and voice calls of their employees in real time.
Conclusion:
CFPB’s new rule only reinforces the idea that more and more customers would like to receive texts rather than to answer numerous calls from debt collectors.
However, while this rule will surely benefit the public, it also presents new compliance challenges for debt collection agencies, especially if they cannot preserve the text messages or monitor the phone calls of their collection officers. Without such capability, texting debt collectors will not be able to defend the legitimacy of their debt collection, and thus they are more likely to lose complaint charges from their customers.
In order for debt collection agencies to comply with the new CFPB rule and relevant customer protection laws and record retention standards, they must have an enterprise-level solution that not only can help them record and monitor phone calls in real-time, but also capture and retain mobile SMS of their employees – regardless of their device platform or network.
The TeleMessage Mobile Archiver effectively addresses compliance, regulatory, eDiscovery response requirements and reduces risks across the financial industry, including Debt Collection Agencies. TeleMessage captures and records mobile SMS, voice calls, MMS, social media, and WhatsApp Chats from corporate or BYOD mobile phones, and flags any content or messages that indicate suspicious activities as well. Messages are securely and reliably retained within TeleMessage servers or forwarded to an archiving data storage vendor of your choice.
Our mobile archiving products securely capture content from mobile carriers and mobile devices for a variety of ownership models (BYOD, CYOD, and employer-issued). With our multiple archiving methods, you can always find the right tools or blend for your text message archiving and voice call recording requirements:
TeleMessage offers cross-carrier and international mobile text and calls archiving for Corporate and BYOD phones. Contact us today to learn more about mobile archiving products.
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