A poll of individuals that was commissioned by a consumer advocacy group “shows strong bipartisan opposition” to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s proposed debt collection rule, with most consumers concerned about the provision that would allow collectors to send text messages to individuals without first being required to obtain permission to do so.
A copy of the poll results, which was released by the Center for Responsible Lending, can be accessed by clicking here.
Eighty-seven percent of registered voters who have been contacted by a debt collector in the past 12 months and were polled said they were either “concerned” or “very concerned” about the text messaging provisions of the proposed rule, while 64% of those who were polled who have not been contacted by a collector expressed concerns about the provision.
Overall, one-fifth of those who were polled had been contacted about an unpaid debt in the past 12 months.
Breaking out the data by party lines, the percentage of individuals who were polled and identified themselves as either a Democrat or a Republican were roughly the same. For example, 78% of Democrats and 68% of Republicans were concerned about the call cap of seven attempted calls per week per debt, according to the advocacy’s report.
“The poll is clear – Americans don’t want CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger to give debt collectors a license to harass and intimidate consumers,” said Melissa Stegman, a Senior Policy Counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending, in a statement. “A consumer-first debt collection rule should protect people – and particularly people of color and active duty military members, veterans and their families – from time-barred ‘zombie debt’.”
