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The last several months have been a roller coaster of emotions and anxiety for anyone in the debt industry. Most of that drama has been focused on changes proposed by the FTC and Congress to protect consumers from “deceptive and abusive” marketing and sales practices in the debt relief industry.
The biggest impact to the debt settlement industry is likely to be the result of potential amendments to the Telephone Sales Rule (TSR). These are guidelines and rules governing how telemarketers can conduct and represent themselves to prospective customer. The TSR is a general telemarketing guideline, but the latest amendments seem to be specifically targeting common debt settlement practices.
Specifically there are proposed provisions to:
- “prohibit charging or collecting fees from customers in advance of services being provided,”
- increasing disclosure requirements; including how long it might take to settle and total costs
- Enforce more specific and accurate representations of success rates and whether your company is a for-profit agency
- Extend the TSR to regulate inbound calls from customers in response to advertisement and marketing
There really are an overwhelming number of changes afoot. I will try to keep you updated as I watch this industry closely to see where the FTC takes its efforts. For more information on the current FTC proposals and potential impact on the debt industry read through these two excellent articles:
Do you have any thoughts or opinions on these changes? I would love to hear them.
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