NBC Nightly News Goes After Debt Collectors

by Mike Bevel, CollectionIndustry.com

As should be readily apparent for anyone working in the debt collection industry, there?s a right way and a wrong way to do it. The right way? Rarely makes for interesting news. The wrong way, though, is a sure-fire way to win over readers and rile up consumer advocates.

As the NBC Nightly News gleefully points out, threatening phone calls placed by debt collectors to debtors are being investigated by the FTC for FDCPA violations. Which, of course, they should be. However, it does skew consumer perceptions of the industry; and it?s not like debt collectors are at the top of everyone?s BFF (best friends forever) list.

The NBC piece does, however, give the ACA a small platform, pointing out that these problems aren?t as widespread as the media would have consumers believe ? especially for an industry that collected $39 billion last year.

?Debt collectors receive thank you notes every single day,? says ACA spokeswoman Rozanne Andersen. ?And the reason they do is because the consumer is so appreciative for the fact that the debt collector assisted them with their payment problems.?

It’s may be enlightening to think back to an earlier time, when NBC Nightly News wasn’t so quick to jump on the anti-collector bandwagon. Back in January, NBC interviewed Kaulkin Ginsberg CEO Mike Ginsberg, a recognized expert in the debt collection industry, as part of a fairly impartial — if not pro — piece on municipal debt collections.