CONSUMER COLLECTIONS

According the Federal Reserve, there are 59.5 Billion debit or credit card swipes a year in the United States. That boils down to 165 million swipes/day; approximately 15% of which occur in Texas (25 million/day; 1.8 million/hour; 30,000/minute; 500/second). That’s a lot of plastic, and much of this article will be geared to the type of consumer debt that is created in the retail debt arena. However, “any obligation or alleged obligation of a consumer to pay money arising out of a transaction in which the money, property, insurance or services which are the subject of the transaction are primarily for personal, family, or household purposes” is likely a consumer debt. This paper has traditionally focused on basic regulatory compliance, causes of action, limitations and proof. While all are important to consumer collections, changes in the industry have necessitated a greater emphasis on issues surrounding regulatory compliance. Consumer lawsuits are like any other lawsuit and, as such, the core legal challenges and approaches are not unique to consumer collections. What has been unique and what continues to drive the evolution within the consumer space are the regulatory requirements and transitions which are actively occurring in this area of practice. The purpose of this paper is to address the common areas of law which impact collection work in this arena and to provide a context in which to understand the rapidly changing framework in which consumer debt collection now operates.