By
Kenneth Long on November 7, 2011
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Collection calls sure are annoying and they always seem to come during dinner time. Imagine having a computer calling you while trying to merge on the freeway. A new House bill proposes exactly that scenario.
The proposed Mobile Informational Call Act of 2011 would extend to debt collectors the same rights to call cellular telephones under the same rules that apply to landline telephones. Instead of agents placing individual calls one at a time, these companies seek greater efficiencies by dialing hundreds of numbers per minute and matching available collection agents to debtors who answer their phones.
Existing rules under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act do not allow for autodialers to be used to contact debtors by cell phone for the purpose of debt collection. The proposed bill will update this Act if it is approved by Congress.
The government has a vested interest in getting this new Act approved. A full 80% of the debt that it tries to collect through private collection agencies is outstanding student loan debt. Students are least likely to also obtain a landline, instead relying only on the cell phones. Extending the same collections rules to cell phones would increase the collection of outstanding student loan debt as well as other consumer debt.
Under current rules, you currently are protected from intrusive robo-collection calls to your cell phone. However, you may soon lose this protection if Congress sides with big business and the White House.
Despite claims that this bill allows for telemarketers to also robo-call cellular phones, the bill keeps this ban intact. If enacted, it would allow robo-calls for purposes of debt collection but not for telemarketing.