While the number of lawsuits may be going down, the number of complaints continues to go up, according to data released yesterday by WebRecon.
Collection agencies faced lawsuits alleging 1,330 violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and the Fair Credit Reporting Act in February, compared with 1,368 such suits in January and 1,503 in the same month last year. Through the first two months of the year, the number of claims is down 9%, to 2,678, according to WebRecon’s data, which tracks lawsuits and complaints filed against collection agencies.
While not usually as expensive as lawsuits, the number of complaints, especially those filed with the Better Business Bureau, are on the rise. There were 79,652 complaints filed with BBBs in 2018 against collection agencies, which is 21% higher than the 65,592 that were filed in 2017. As well, the number of complaints filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in February was 18% higher than the total filed in January.
Companies in the credit and collection space should recognize that the number of FCRA lawsuits continues to increase while the number of FDCPA and TCPA suits keeps declining, albeit slowly.
