Debt Collection in AtlantaCredit scores, credit reports, collections agencies: Atlantans are very familiar with all these terms, particularly given that many of the largest credit reporting agencies are located in Atlanta. Sometimes, in their pursuit of monies that consumers owe, debt collection companies can become heavy-handed and even engage in illegal acts. The federal government has passed a law called the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act which is meant to limit collection abuse. Often, if a consumer is receiving a debt collection call, its probably because some money is owed. And that is something an Atlanta Bankruptcy attorney is best suited to help with. |
Several counties and localities in and around the Atlanta region are resorting to private debt collectors.
These counties and municipalities are aiming to collect on debts owing to them from residents, specifically unpaid traffic tickets. The counties and cities include Fulton County , DeKalb county as well as the cities of Atlanta, Alpharetta and Roswell, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
There’s a whole new industry forming around foreclosures. It involves the sale of non-performing notes by the bank to investors (or individuals) who want to step into the bank’s shoes.
Why would anyone want to do that? What’s the logic in buying a bad loan? Why on earth would anyone want to buy a loan that has already been called “non-performing”?
Four Atlanta area residents have been sentenced in federal court for defrauding banks in connection with a mortgage scheme, reports WSBTV.
The four Atlanta residents belong to a larger group of six that were responsible for cheating Wachovia, Bank of America and Washington Mutual out of more than $3.7 million, reports the Atlanta Division of the FBI. The scheme involved "straw borrowers." The schemers recruited these fake borrowers to apply for home equity loans using fake documents.
It is no longer just the sanity of individual student loan borrowers that student loans are harming. Now it is the entire economy.
Turns out that the more than trillion dollars that U.S. students owe to private lenders and the government is really hard to pay off and is causing a massive sinkhole in the American economy, reports The Associated Press.
In this discussion, people are starting to realize that a 2005 law which made it illegal to use a bankruptcy to discharge debts made by banks and private financial institutions, might not have been thought through, reports the AP.
Private debt collectors for student loans are coming your way, reports Business Week.
Nearly 5 million borrowers of federal loans are currently in default, which means they have at least 270 days without making a payment. And this has brought an army of private debt collectors for student loans to create a new industry where they recover payments on behalf of the lender. In some instances the monthly payment they extract is higher than what the defaulter might have paid under the federal laws.
A major credit rating company, Equifax, just announced that American credit card debt statistics are improving a little, reports the Atlanta Business Journal. In fact, about 60 out of the top 100 metropolitan areas saw declines in percentage of income owed to credit card companies.
However, the company was quick to warn that while total consumer debt in the USA has declined from $12.4 trillion in October 2008, citizens still owe more than $800 billion just on credit card debts.
Avoiding debt is one of the best ways to prepare for a secure financial future. Many consumers, though, risk financial freedom by falling into credit card debt.
This blog has an affection for ironic bankruptcies, like when The Money Tree said it didn't have any more money.
Now to add a second entry to this slowly growing series.
It turns out that the proverbial Empire State of the South, the tallest skyscraper in the Southern United States, namely Bank of America plaza, was foreclosed on, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Allen Iverson, the one-time NBA’s Most Valuable Player, who had a very tough end to his career, just got legally hammered by an Atlanta jeweler over some old bling, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Aydin and Company Jewelers just gained access to Iverson’s Wells Fargo account in an attempt to recoup the hundreds of thousands Iverson still owed on the jewelry that he had purchased in 2008 and 2009. Allen Iverson’s jewelry included diamond bracelets, a diamond watch, and a ring.
Carlton A. Lewis, a UGA psychology grad student, was sentenced to six years in prison for committing identity theft and credit card fraud, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The 25-year-old from Lithonia was involved with credit and debit card skimming devices, which he then gave to waitresses who used them to obtain credit and debit card info from unsuspecting customers. Mr. Lewis' work wasn't done then. He then used a re-encoding device to turn the money into counterfeit credit and debit cards.
The Federal Trade Commission is pursuing more companies for abuse and illegal debt collection practices, reports the Huffington Post. Some of the debt collection companies targeted in the probe were abusive, used threatening words, and even went after people that didn’t owe the money.
But while abusive debt collectors exist, there are many legitimate small businesses in Georgia seeking to recover monies owed to them. How should they go about collecting that debt?
