Longtime debt collector’s state they’ve been habitually insulted, trashed with obscenities and threatened with violence by the people they call.

“They want you to feel as small and insignificant as possible,” said Ms. Lesllie Rogers, who works for a collection agency in Rochester, Minn. “The guy who sits across from me just was threatened with getting his legs and arms cut off.” Debt collectors like Ms. Rogers are well alert that they are not a likeable lot, but now they are saying enough is enough. The trade association that embodies them is involved in an attempt to change their poor image, while also trying to influence the rules that preside over them as they face the outlook of a rigid new regulator.

These are flourishing times for collection agencies, which have been flooded with work as many Americans are in debt and struggle to repay it. However, the industry has been targeted for pushing too hard. Last year, 140,036 complaints were filed against debt collectors, a 17 percent rise over the previous year, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The complaints expressed intimidating late-night phone calls and threats of jail time or appropriating a house. In one particular case, a jury awarded a Texas man $1.5 million after a debt collector left voicemail messages using vulgarities and racial insults.

Those are the exceptions, the industry’s trade association says.

In fact, Mark Neeb, the association’s incoming president, says that most debt collectors are the “salt of the earth” and are tired of being defined by the worst members of their profession. It is now they who are feeling harassed. “There really ought to be a law on how consumers behave towards debt collectors,” said Mr. Neeb, whose employees normally use pseudonyms on the phone to guard their identity from harsh debtors. After several years in which the overenthusiastic approaches of debt collectors have been the focus of officials and media alike, ACA International has set its lobbying operation in Washington to carry out a wish list of laws and regulations that it would like changed.

At the advocating of the organization, debt collectors are traveling to Washington and state capitals, hoping to assure regulators, legislators and attorneys general that they are decent people who are doing an important but appreciated job. In order to fully explain the profession to the public, the association, ACA International, has put together a website called – Ask Doctor Debt- that lets consumers ask questions in a “Dear Abby” style format. The mission has gained some determination. Next month debt collectors will come under the regulation of a new supervisory board, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

So far, the profession had been regulated by a somewhat powerless Federal Trade Commission, which had the ability to crack down on rogue debt collectors but could not write the laws and regulations for the industry. The mentioned new consumer bureau will in fact have that authority, and it will share monitoring duties with the F.T.C. The new agency ” has the potential to have a huge impact on our industry,” Mr. Need said.

On the debt collector’s agenda the most important step is updating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which was passed in 1977, and has not been changed much since. ACA International, based in Minneapolis, wants its members to have the ability to communicate with debtors using modern technology, including e-mail, cellphones and auto dialers, all of which under current rules lead to problems. “Any functional difference between a cellphone and a residential landline has been eroded,” the association says, in an outline of its proposed changes. Additionally, ACA International wants regulators to identify precise language that debt collectors may use when leaving a voice message, something that is now the issue of thousands of lawsuits each year against the industry.

The concern, with both e-mails and voice messages, is that third party could see or hear the message. “We can’t help consumers with their financial problems if we can’t get ahold of them,” Mr. Neeb said. A usual criticism of debt collectors is that they pursue debts with little paperwork to back up their claim. As a result, the association is advising that the law be revised so that creditors would have to maintain account information on their customers for at least seven years.

The debt collectors have established some allies, at least on some issues. Rodney L. Davis, a senior vice president at the Better Business Bureau, agreed that the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act needed to be updated to reflect changes in technology. Margot Freeman Saunders, counsel at the National Consumer Law Center, said the group would be eager to discuss some of the proposed changes if ACA International reinforced increasing the amount of legal damages for violating the act. The penalty has remained at $1,000 since the law was passed, and Ms. Saunders maintains that it has little preventive value. Mark Sciffman, ACA International’s spokesman, said the issue was still being negotiated.

Third-party debt collectors are typically hired by a store, Cellphone Company or bank, to collect a debt that has become delinquent. Huge portfolios of negligent debt are frequently sold to a debt buyer for pennies on the dollar. Then, the debt buyer, in turn, may hire a collection agency, or a law firm specializing in debt collection.

The leaders of ACA International said they backed efforts by regulators to onslaught debt collectors who do not follow the rules, in spite of how embarrassing it might be. The top complaints last year were for calling repeatedly, misrepresenting the amount of the debt, and failing to send consumers a required notice about the debt and their rights.

Source: The New York Times