There is no doubt that text messaging has become a major medium for exchanging information. Easy, painless, no speaking on the phone. No wonder that according to the latest statistics that have been taken there were almost 750 billion text messages sent in the U.S. in 2009, almost double the number from one year before. Actually, technology and research firm executive Jacob D. Almeida recently predicted that money transfers will be the top mobile application by as early as 2012.

Debt collectors have stayed out of this field for now; The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act was a landmark legislation that went into effect in the late 1970s and has strictly outlined how debt collectors can call and when. Seeing as this act is even older than a stereotypical “Saved by the Bell Cell phone” from the 90s, it might be due time to adjust the law. But analysts are saying that any change in this area would have to come from consumers seeking change, not collectors.

Under the FDCPA, communications with consumers require a notice that the text is in fact from a debt collector, which leads to issues with the 160 character maximum length of money transferring messages. Another hurdle is determining who will pay the message. There is no current way for a collection agency to know if a consumer has a plan that includes unlimited text messages; the kicker being that if a contact is paid for by the debtor, it is illegal.

Another potential issue for debt collection agencies is determining the ownership of the device itself. For Example, the debtor might be using a company owned wireless device. Said company may be monitoring the usage of the device, leading to third party disclosure issues if there were communications based in text about a debt.

Sadly, Congress has to vote on health care, the budget, cap and trade and many other issues first before it can get down and tackle this text message issue. So time will tell.

Rapid Recovery Solution is a third party debt collection agency. lawyer based and equipped with skip tracing tools.

And you thought your debt collection agency was bad! A website recently made a list of bad debt collection experiences and these were among the worst of the collection. Karen Garrett, the public relations coordinator for Pittsburgh-based nonprofit Advantage Credit Counseling Service felt that she had heard it all until her agency received a call from a senior citizen late last year. She had called in tears and told Garrett that bill collectors had called her and told her that they had the police outside. If she did not pay, they were going to drag her to jail.

Debts are strictly a civil matter, not a criminal one, and jail time is definitely not even a punishment for not paying your bills. “It is very important for people to know that there is no such thing as debtor’s prison” Garrett says, smiling and rolling her eyes.

If debt collectors are making illegal threats like deportation, physical violence and jail time, you always can report the harassment to the Federal Trade Commission or to your state attorney general’s office. The Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act restricts bad behavior by third party collectors. These people do not follow the same rules as those who are collecting for the creditors directly. They are not allowed to call you at your place of employment if you ask them to stop, publish or threaten to publish your debt, reveal to anyone else that you may have a debt, harass you on the phone or use profanity. The laundry list continues.

They cannot utilize loss of child custody, deportation, physical harm or illegal punishment like jail. They can’t call your home before eight AM or after 9 PM or even call at all if you have already asked in writing to cease contact, or if you’ve hired an attorney.

One older woman from New Jersey owed $12,000 in credit card debt after putting day to day living expenses on her card. The debt collector called and told her that they were going to take her home. She was also told that they weren’t willing to take a penny less than the $12,000 she owed, and furthermore, they wanted it now. She tried to scrape up the money herself but couldn’t. “Debt collection companies are very intelligent when it comes to doing research. They will threaten targeted assets like a home or income source. But in many states, homes are protected from debt collection,

Mallory Megan works for a debt collection company. Also she writes stories on business and finance, consumer spending and collection agencies. Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service

Health care reform bills brought in this week by Senate and House cabinet could clash with some debt buyers and collection agencies that does not offer health insurance or have insurance plans that might be considered too inadequate. The recent proposals would demand businesses to supply coverage to workers.

So far, however, ACA International says it is hopeful that the health care reform legislation wont negatively affect how hospitals and health care providers do business with ARM professionals.

ACA is tentatively favorable that the important business operations of health care providers will remain flawless in the near term.

Under the Americas Affordable Health Choices Act introduced Tuesday in Congress, employers may provide health insurance coverage for their workers or contribute funds on their behalf to a public plan. To help small employers, firms with payrolls of $250,000 or less will be exempt from providing coverage. But employers with payrolls between $250,000 and $400,000 that do not provide health coverage would face a penalty starting at two percent of total payroll and rise to eight percent. A new small business tax credit will be available for companies that want to provide health coverage to their workers. Also, employers that offer coverage will have to meet minimum benefit and contribution requirements.

Jim Richards, chief executive of Capio Partners, a debt purchasing and collections company, said that he doesnt anticipate any detrimental impact to his 18-month old business from legislation requiring employers to provide health care coverage. Like many other companies Richards has owned, Capio Partners has offered health coverage since its origin. Richards said it makes competitive sense for the Atlanta-based company to offer health coverage and it helps attracts better employees. Also, its a good thing because people get coverage.

ACA president Jay Gonsalves said most of his organization’s membership provides health care coverage. But he’s concerned that minimum coverage standards could burden employers.

Mallory Megan is employed by a debt collection agency. Also she composes stories on business and finance, consumer spending and collection agencies.

Bill collectors, or debt and account collectors’ purpose is to attempt to collect payment on delinquent bills. Most bill collectors are employed by third party collection agencies. The creditor, or the company or business that is owed the debt, will often hire outside of the company; especially if their accounts receivable department is small.

Other collection agents work directly for the original creditors; these collectors are called in house collectors. Usually these are finance-based companies like credit card and mortgage companies, health care providers or utility companies.

No matter what organization that they employed by, the goals of bill collectors are the same. First, they’re called upon to locate businesses or people that are in debt, and let them know that they are late. Typically this will be over the phone, but sometimes they mail out letters.

When debtors (people in debt) move without leaving a forwarding address, bill collectors might check with telephone companies, the post office, credit bureaus and former neighbors to get the new address. This practice is called “skip tracing.” They’ll use computer systems to automatically track when people or companies change their addresses or contact information on any of their open accounts.

Once the bill collectors locate debtors they let them know about the overdue accounts and ask for payment. If it’s necessary they’ll go over the terms of sale, or credit contracts. A good bill collector is a sneaky one. They’ll probably use their listening skills to try to figure out the cause of the delinquency.

Usually, they will have the authority to offer a repayment plan or some other aid to make it easier for people to pay off the money that they owe. Sometimes they are able to find solutions to the financial problem. They may even give useful advice or refer people to debt counselors.

Mallory Megan works for a debt collection agency. Also she writes stories on business, finance, consumer spending and collection agencies. Click here to get your own unique version of this article with free reprint rights.

A Debt consolidation program starts with assessing your financial state of affairs. This formula involves an in depth analysis of your financial bearings. That analysis will assist you to evaluate whether it is best to file for bankruptcy or go for a debt consolidation program. A debt consolidation analysis will approximate the debtor’s potential savings through the program.

When a deal is settled with the debt consolidation company and the debtor. The next step is for one of the counselors to communicate with the creditors and work out a reduction in the interest rates and monthly payments at an amount that will be affordable to the debtor.

Through negotiations with the creditors, the debt consolidation company usually reduces or eliminates the interest charged. The balance owed to-wards the creditors is reduced and they can give the debtor a reduction in even the principal amount.

The Debt consolidation program will also help the debtors by inducing the creditors to stop the legal actions which they were taking against the debtor which means they can no more devour debtor’s income nor can they bring the debtor to court. Also this starts bringing up the credit rating of the debtor because now the debtor is repaying the debts under the new agreement.

With this method of debt relief, the debtor will no longer have to answer embarrassing phone calls from his creditors. The debtor will not receive any bills or pay the creditors directly. The debt consolidation program will directly take control over the creditors. The debtor will just need to pay the debt consolidation company a single amount every month according to the budget which was agreed upon with the debtors. So there is no need for any interaction with the creditors.

Most of the time these systems are free to the debtor since the fees are paid by the creditors, as they would rather acquire something in return than lose all the money that the debtor owes them. Also, programs like this work for those with good or bad credit. It is a great solution for debt reduction to use a debt services company or consolidator that uses this method.

Mallory Megan works for Rapid Recovery Solution and writes articles on nationwide collection agencies

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