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 [...]
Product Knowledge, Do You Know What You’re Selling?
Image by k-ideas via Flickr This almost seems a silly topic, but I think it is often overlooked and regularly kills deals. Your customers come to you or buy from you because of your knowledge. After all if they could do it themselves they probably would. The question is-are you staying competent enough to do [...]
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 [...]
Online Marketing Compliance, Learning the FTC “Rules of the Road”
Image via Wikipedia The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is one of the primary policing agencies for online marketing compliance. If you are marketing online it is smart to get familiar with their guidelines for compliance. Getting educated on these guidelines is as simple as researching FTC’s “Advertising and Marketing on the Internet: Rules of the [...]
Debt Business, How to be One of the Good Guys
The economy is rapidly slipping into a recession and that is pushing a lot of people to feel the weight of their debt. Unfortunately, that is sure to bring in the wolves, like we saw in the heyday of the mortgage refinance boom. How do you differentiate yourself as one of the “good guys?” I [...]
