Unfair Laws Against Debt Collectors

It is certainly no secret that being a debt collector is hard work. These professionals must deal with rude people, hang-ups, and, more often than not, low success rates. On top of all of these problems, however, they typically face lawsuits from consumers and others just for doing their jobs. The law is written in favor of consumers, and it’s very easy to find legal fault with things debt collectors do, which means that most live in constant fear of being sued, making their already-difficult jobs even more difficult.   

As if the constant fear of a lawsuit wasn’t bad enough, debt collectors are often subjected to very unfair and inconsistent laws that other business people are not subjected to. For example, while other businesses can charge and pass along transaction fees, debt collectors are severely limited in their ability to do this, which means they and their businesses often lose money through processing the payments that they are able to collect upon, payments which are quite hard-won in the first place.

Debit and Credit Concerns

The vast majority of today’s consumers pay for items, services, or owed debts using their credit or debit cards. While doing so is super convenient for them, it charges a not so convenient fee to the person or business that is receiving the payment, known as a processing fee. Most businesses are allowed to escape these fees, which can quickly add up, by charging them to the consumer, but debt collectors are not allowed to charge these fees, which costs them big money over time.

Why It’s Wrong

There are many reasons that it’s wrong for debt collectors not to be allowed to charge transaction fees. To begin with, it is just not fair; if other businesses can do it and recoup some of their costs, why can’t debt collectors?

To make matters even worse, debt collectors are not required to offer the convenience of credit or debit payments to consumers; they do so to offer convenience to those consumers, and they get punished for their kind consideration. Furthermore, it is not as if debt collectors are trying to extort consumers or add on to their debt; they are simply trying to recoup the charges that they incur as they service the consumers that they work with.

The fact of the matter is that there are many unfair laws affecting debt collectors, and sadly, these laws don’t show any hope of being repealed soon, so debt collectors have to abide by them. Hopefully, in the future, however, the laws will change to respect the rights of not just consumers and debtors, but of the debt collectors as well.