Most people would simply rather pay their credit card debts than deal with collection phone calls and collection attorney letters. But, what about those who cannot afford to make monthly minimum payments on their credit card debt? Many fall prey to the debt collection industry. Some, however, become educated consumers and use the law to force debt collectors to spend their time with other, less knowledgeable consumers.

Time is money for a credit card debt collector, who is in the business of collecting unsecured consumer debt, most of which happens to be credit card debt. These consumer debt collectors and collection attorneys work on a percentage of what is collected. Most people think there is a debt collector for every debt, when the reality is there is only a debt collector for every easy-to-collect credit card debt.

Consumer debt collection has grown and prospered with the expansion of the credit card industry.

Consumer credit went from $133.7 billion of in 1970 to $2.5 trillion of debt in November 2007, according to the Federal Reserve and Business Week.

Each year debt collectors put more than $40 billion back into the U.S. economy, according to ACA International, a trade group for the debt collection industry.

According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 173 million credit cardholders in the United States in 2006.

According to the American Banking Associate, 4.75 percent of bank cards were delinquent in the first quarter of 2009.

The point is, there are millions of delinquent credit card accounts to go around to ambitious debt collectors.

Credit card companies must comply with Federal Reserve regulations by keeping reserves to for bad debts. Bad debt is part of their business. After these debts are written off, junk debt buyers bid on blocks of delinquent credit card accounts. If successful, they pay no more than 10 cents for each dollar of debt. With that discount rate junk debt buyers and the collection agencies and collection attorneys who work for them only need to collect 30 or 40 percent of the debts to make money.

Debt collectors can make more money by pursuing delinquent credit card account holders who put up no resistance. Proper resistance to debt collection attempts usually causes debt collectors to look for less resistant targets. Effective resistance to credit card debt collectors relies on The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).

According to the FDCPA the debt collector must notify the consumer in writing of their right to dispute the debt and have it validated. Validation means the collector must send copies of original documentation verifying the debt. The FDCPA also says the consumer can instruct the debt collector to cease collection attempts until they properly validate the debt. As original creditors credit card companies are not covered by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. However, the behavior of collection agencies, collection attorneys, and junk debt buyers is covered by this federal law.

So, who should the consumer debt-collection commissioned professionals spend their time with, those who properly dispute and request validation or those who put up no resistance?

Related Posts:

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• A Phone Call from a Credit Card Debt Collector? . . . You Do Not Need to Take It.
• Don’t Take Phone Calls from Credit Card Debt Collectors
• The Debt Collectors Following You
• How to Respond to a Court Summons for Credit Card Debt