Bill Bartmann Wants Collectors to Pay $10,000 for FDCPA Violations

Former (and current) accounts receivable management firm owner Bill Bartmann is urging Congress to amend the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) to include higher penalties for violations, more restrictions on debt collection practices, and licensing requirements down to the collector level.

Bartmann put out an appeal last week for people to sign an electronic petition that he says will be delivered to members of Congress. The petition can be viewed and signed at StopTheseCriminals.com.

In a video posted to the site, Bartmann explains how much debt collectors suck, except for his, of course.  After noting that he’s the only bill collector in history to be thanked by Mother Teresa, he uses professionally-produced reenactment clips of violent collector-debtor exchanges to paint the industry in the negative light to which it has become accustomed. And this guy owns a collection agency.

Bartmann recently reentered the ARM industry with the launch of CFS II, the successor company to his former debt collection agency Commercial Financial Services (CFS), which folded in 1999 under the weight of a massive securities fraud investigation.

The recommendations laid out in the petition to Congress are enumerated thusly:

1. Increase the penalty for violations of debt-collection rules from the current $1,000 to $10,000 for each violation.
2. Ban all collection activities on debt that is older than the relevant statute of limitations.
3. Raise the requirements necessary to file a lawsuit on credit-card debt.
4. Require collection agencies to provide clear and understandable history of debt.
5. Require all collection agencies to be licensed.
6. Require all collectors to be licensed.
7. Require an annual compliance audit for all collection agencies.
8. Allow consumers to record telephone calls from collection agencies.

While it’s hard to argue with the recommendations (except for maybe the penalty level), especially since nearly all of them are currently being discussed by various regulators, the messenger and the manner in which the message is being delivered is…interesting, to say the least.

What do you think?