I had recently attended a legal seminar hosted by the CCUL presented by a well renowned attorney whose name I withhold out of respect. On the top of his list of legal issues to address to the attendees was the soon to be active Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Anyone who has read my editorials over the last six months would know I’ve been warning of the powers of this agency and I have to confess, I’ve been disappointed with the reception of my warning. I sensed either some apathy or disbelief that the CFPB could possibly enact the radical acts upon the collections and repossession industry as I feared they will.
2-14-11 - The Repossession Industry Civil War - Time to Cool theGuns Down
Well, what started as an announcement of the failure of the three major repossession trade associations seems to have brought out some very heated debate as well as some pretty heavy accusations. There has been a lot of anger from some people who are clearly frustrated and looking for a reason or reaching for someone to blame for this dead end in the three year long negotiation process. While the frustration is certainly warranted, the tone of the debate has in some cases been less than constructive.
2-9-11 - The Other Sides of the Convicted GA Repo Man’s Story
I know very well how a simple situation like a voluntary can go bad just as much as I know how people can twist a bad situation to favor themselves and make themselves the victim, but the two different sides of the story couldn’t be much further off from each other. With such differing stories, I have to rest my opinion on credibility.
2-3-11 - An Industry Remains Divided – A Call for Unity
This is not a time to stand on the sidelines and see what happens or a time for petty squabbles over names, titles or perceived power. If the industry does not unite, all very well be for naught as you may find that an industry incapable of writing and enforcing its own rules will have them written for them or worse yet, have their fractured industry dealt a death blow.
Let me set one thing straight for the record. I believe in gun rights as well as the individual right to bear arms in public. I oppose restrictions limiting the types of guns a law-abiding non-felon convicted, citizen can possess within our nation. I find such laws to be unconstitutional and evident of a “nanny state” gone wild.
With that said, I feel there seems to be a problem within the repossession industry that has the potential to bring in a sweeping backlash against it that could ultimately lead to its demise as we know it. That problem is repossessors carrying guns.
1-13-11 - A Wish List from the Enemy Camp - NCLC Proposing Major Changes to Lending and Collections through the CFPB
In December 2010, the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) published yet another paper proposing changes to the collections industry. As I’d written about in July 2010’s article “The End of Self Help Repossessions”, just as in their March 2010 publication “Repo Madness” where they proposed a moratorium on the self help repossession process, they are at it again with “Time to Update the Credit Practices Rule” subtitled “CFPB Should Modernize FTC Rule Addressing Abusive Creditor Collection Practices.” Within its pages are proposals that would crush late charge fee income as well as require repossession reinstatement rights.
12-30-10 - Wrongful Repo; When the Tables Are Turned
“Wrongful Repo.” The words leave a cold pit in your stomach whether you’re a collector, collection manager or repossessor. Anyone who’s been in the business more than a year has gone through it at least once, if not many times. The reversal of roles and liability associated with the error leave all parties involved at the mercy of the borrower, or in other words, the hunted becomes the hunter.
12-29-10 - Bankers or Burglars? Foreclosure Bungles Lead to
Break-ins and Property Theft
When 45 year old Mimi Ash arrived at her Truckee, California ski chalet high above Lake Tahoe, that was her previous refuge from the city and a fond memory of her husband of was the victim of a road rage murder in 2005, she walked into a new nightmare. The locks were changed. When she finally did get in, she found all of her family possession gone; furniture, family photos and cherished family heirlooms.She very soon found out that she had not been the victim or burglary, but the victim of her bank.
Just like every Christmas season, a lot of people are heading to the theaters and while there isn’t anything going on there directly related to the collections and recovery industry, there is an odd release coming out late next month.
12-14-10 - Collections and Repossessions During the Christmas Season
Every year the question seems to arise, “To repo or not to repo.” There are virtues to each argument and quite often, the decision comes from the executive level of a lending organization and not so much by the management. From the view of the recovery agent, it is sometimes quite similar and depends upon the owners of the agency or the agents own preference or religious beliefs. These decisions have potential ramifications to the debtor, the collector and the recovery agent.
“It’s not my account” How many times in collections have we heard a collector respond to a criticism of sloppy or no real collection attempt on an incoming call with this attitude of apathy? I know from my experiences through the years, it’s one of the most irritating statements a collector can make. It demonstrates a clear lack of concern with a collections department or organizations larger goals. Quite obviously this problem can be dealt with through corrective actions but, using the “carrot and stick” analogy, sometimes using the stick is only band aids on bullet holes when in reality the focus should perhaps be placed on the carrot.
I think everyone in the collections and recovery industry had a little apprehension that justice might not be served in Monday’s jury verdict on the murder of Brandon Thomas and shooting of Willie Thackston by reported ex-con Justin Moore. There was ample reason to fear that a jury could take the low road and find him innocent or that the judge would be lenient. We’ve all seen such things happen a thousand times before. In light of the public image of the collections and recovery industry provided by Hollywood and the press in recent years, there was a sincere danger that the jury could have seen the victims in a harsher light as the defense tried to present them.Read More!
11-18-10 - The Hypocrisy of Foreclosure Protestors
Over the past couple of years there have been numerous anti-foreclosure protests staged against many lenders. Groups like ACORN, SEIU and numerous other social activist groups have been rallying their supporters to march into banks chanting slogans and waving signs. As if the mounting foreclosure rates across the country weren’t enough, the bailouts given by Washington to Wall Street were fuel to the fire.There’s no question, rampant greed was the cause of the nations mortgage meltdown.Read More!
11-11-10 - In Memory of a Fallen Recovery Agent
Every day collection managers at Credit Unions, Banks and auto finance companies assign out thousands of repossession orders and everyday recovery Agents cruise the streets and highways of our nation helping us locate and recover our collateral to minimize our losses. And every year agents are killed performing a duty that is despised and misunderstood by most and unfortunately, taken for granted by most of us on the collections end of the process. Men like Thomas and Thackston and most recovery agents spend many nights away from their families working long hours for contingency only pay. Read More!
11-2-10 - TruTV Trashes Collections and Recovery Again
TruTV is at it again. As a spin off from the staged reality show “All Worked Up”, a series about a process server, a bouncer, a bounty hunter and a repossessor, have elected to ride the “Operation Repo” coat tails by signing the repossessors Ron and Amy Shirley of Wendell, North Carolina for a new show titled “Lizard Lick Towing. “ Just as “Operation Repo” stages repossession scenes for the show with comical white trash actors, “Lizard Lick Towing” features rampant front yard wrestling and gun play. So, how much of a real Recovery Agent are these people? Read More!
10-28-10 - Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) Technology, Repossessions, The Lender and The ACLU
Somewhere in America as you read this, a set of truck mounted cameras is rolling through a parking lot or down a highway scanning up to 360K images per minute on vehicles moving up to 160 mph with its four mounted cameras which are capturing hundreds of license plates an hour and are feeding the license plates scanned into a mounted laptop computer. These computers are sending the captured plate numbers with the GPS locations up to a major database which scours the data for vehicles being searched for by lenders from all over the world. The laptop computer gets a red flash on the screen and the recovery agent has a hit and very soon, another car or truck in the barn. To the general public this sounds like science fiction, but the reality is Automatic License Plate Technology (ALPR) has been around for many years. What has exploded is its use in the auto recovery industry. Read More!
10-16-10 Collections and the Social Media
I’ve recently heard of some collectors who are creating fictional characters to lure debtors into “friending” them into providing personal information to aid in asset locating and recovery. I know it sounds wrong, but, I’m not sure it’s illegal if the debtor is out there broadcasting it to the world wide web. Read More!
9-25-10 Burning Down the House
In case you hadn’t heard, the recession ended last year. Forgive me if I don’t pop the champagne but, I haven’t seen any signs of that lately. One of the unfortunate trends that has erupted during the recession is a “scorched earth” mentality towards homes by their defaulting residents. As the result of the bank bailouts and finger pointing by the press, people have reached the conclusion that they are no longer responsible for their own outcomes and that the banks and Credit Unions are deserving of their wrath.Read More!
9-19-10 Elizabeth Warren, the CFPB and You
I’ve been very surprised at the lack of concern many people in the collections and recovery industry seem to have about the passing of the“Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010”and the possible appointment of Elizabeth Warren to the position of its Director. This bureau will be in place and active effective July 31, 2011. After this date, all speculation will cease and as I’d warned in July 2010, major changes will be coming. Let’s just hope their plates are too full to get to us in a hurry. Read More!
No, the Al Qaeda hasn’t branched out into collections, it’s a the label invented and applied to collectors of all types by an unintentionally humorous paralegal who is trying to pedal debt avoidance, lawsuits and pro-se bankruptcy for his own advantage. Read More!
8-28-10 The Business of Hiding Repos
Until recently cracked down on, home loan modification scams, ironically being touted by the same people who brokered their bad loans to start with, were rampant. It does seem that some enterprising persons are attempting to organize a new spin on an old method of avoiding repossession through a strategy I’ll call, for lack of a better name, a “repo swap.” This strategy is as old as the hills and was traditionally one in which the borrower, knowing he was out for repossession, would trade his car with a friend or family member until he could get caught up or felt the heat was off. Read More!
8-21-10 On the Other End of the Phone
As a collector you've probably managed thousands of calls and heard just as many stories. But unless you've seen first hand the people on the other end of the phone, you probably haven't seen the whole picture. While the people shown below don't paint a picture on the entire public, they are not that unusual and we've all had our share of people playing games like them. Read More!
8-16-10 Hollywood and Collections
Historically, collections seem to be an easy target for Hollywood when the economy is poor. Just as in the “The Great Depression”, we sit in the midst of this apparently never ending “Great Recession” and Hollywood has dusted off its contemporary character stereotypes to put a negative face on the reality of our economic conditions. I suppose it may be somewhat therapeutic to the general public to be able to despise and ridicule those of us whose professions it is to carry out the necessary functions of assuring financial stability for the majority of Americans. It’s an easier pill to swallow than the truth. Read More!
8-9-10 Public or Private
Long has the debate of repossession liquidation methods raged. There seems to be two disciplines of thought on the subject. One the public side is the maximum sales value and, on the private side, the consistency and compliance consideration. While I don’t propose that I have the answers to what is best, I do know that I have tried almost everything.
We all from time to time do have the opportunity to help others in our line of work. While our profession is often maligned and marginalized by the press and public, we occasionally have these encounters that allow us to remember that we do make a difference.Read More!
7-27-10 An End to Self Help Repossessions
While most of us were unaware, in March 2010, the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) published a report titled“Repo Madness.”This publication touted their proposal for massive national legal changes to the repossession process which, if taken to action could mark and end to self help repossession and possibly the repossession industry, as we know it. Read More!
7-20-10 Changes
If there is one constant in the universe, it is change. We all stand at the precipice of what will likely be monumental change in the way we operate forever. All across the nation new laws are being enacted to slow down the collections, foreclosure and repossession processes. It isn’t surprising that in this time of high unemployment and foreclosures, politicians would look for ways to protect the public from abuse and encourage lenders to work with members. There is no question that there have been abuses in the banking and collection industry and it is the duty of the government to assure the public is protected from unfair and deceptive business practices.There is, however, a tipping point at which the deck is getting stacked against the lender, collector and the entire financial industry.Read More!
