Image by dcJohn via Flickr The @GetOutofDebtGuy over at Credit, Debt, Life did a nice review of the Florida Attorney General’s efforts to change how debt settlement folks get paid. His letter to the FTC encourages the FTC to require debt settlement companies to only collect fees after services are provided. Unlike credit counseling programs [...]

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) TSR/Debt Relief Forum
Image by Getty Images via Daylife The FTC hosted a public forum on November 4, 2009 to discuss a proposed “advance fee ban” and continued tightening on “disclosures and misrepresentations” related to the debt settlement industry. The meeting was certainly packed with all of the major players in the debt settlement industry from practitioners to [...]
Robocalls Prohibited by New FTC Rules, as of September 1, 2009
Image via Wikipedia The FTC has significantly altered the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) with two amendments. The first prevents unsolicited robocalls and the second modifies the method of calculating the maximum permissible “call abandonment” rate. Both went into affect on September 1, 2009. And you can read the press releases from the FTC directly here [...]
FTC, Protecting the Consumer or Shutting Down Their Lifeline?
Image via Wikipedia According to a recent New York Times article the FTC‘s effort to shutdown misleading debt relief companies may reach too far. Initiatives underway are calling for debt settlement to fall under the umbrella of debt collection style telemarketing rules. In addition, it will target many of the up-front fees that sustain debt-relief [...]



