In this episode, John Bedard of Bedard Law Group finishes off the other prohibited practices detailed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in Regulation F, more commonly known as the debt collection rule. This includes what to do when someone makes a payment but has multiple debts placed with a collector, how to handle accounts that have been discharged in bankruptcy, and where collection lawsuits must be filed.

In this episode, John Bedard of Bedard Law Group kicks off a discussion about Section 1006.34, which covers the CFPB’s model validation notice, starting with a new term coined for Regulation F — Validation Information — and moving on to how this information is required to be communicated to consumers.

In the latest episode of “You Wanted a Rule, You Got a Rule,” John Bedard of Bedard Law Group breaks down the four categories of validation information that will be required to be included in validation notices so collectors can understand what changes are going to have to be made to their letters.

For the first time, “You Wanted a Rule, You Got a Rule” looks at Part II of Regulation F, which the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released last December. This particular section of the debt collection rule may be somewhat straightforward — debt collectors may not bring or threaten to bring legal actions against a consumer to collect a time-barred debt. But determining whether a debt is time-barred or not is far less straightforward. In this episode, John Bedard walks through the section on collecting time-barred debts while offering his insights into the nuances of determining which statutes of limitations apply and a key change the CFPB made from the proposed rule to the final rule which makes the stakes even higher for collectors when they make a mistake.

When it was written, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act laid out a number of things that collectors are not allowed to do. In order to maintain consistency, and because there are still collectors today doing those things they are not allowed to do, the CFPB kept many of the original provisions from the FDCPA in its debt collection rule. That includes ensuring that collectors do not use false, deceptive, or misleading representations when attempting to collect on debts. In this episode, John Bedard walks through all of the things that collectors need to learn to make sure they do not run afoul of the law in this important area.

Section 1006.22 of Regulation F — the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s debt collection rule — is the section that suffers from a bit of a technology identity crisis, but still includes some new wrinkles in laying out the kinds of behavior that are prohibited when attempting to collect on unpaid debts. In the newest episode of “You Wanted a Rule, You Got a Rule” John Bedard of Bedard Law Group walks through the technology timeline and identifies the potential problem areas that could get collection agencies in some hot water.

So far, John Bedard has covered the harassing, oppressive, abuse abusive, false, deceptive, misleading, unfair, and unconscionable conduct that is prohibited under Regulation F, the CFPB’s Debt Collection Rule. In this episode of “You Wanted a Rule, You Got a Rule,” John turns his attention to Section 1006.30, which details the other prohibited practices that collectors are barred from doing. The CFPB lists five practices that are prohibited in this section, and the first one deals with something known as debt parking, which occurs when a furnisher of information to credit reporting agencies reports an unpaid debt to a credit bureau without notifying the consumer first. Listen to John detail the steps that furnishers must follow if they are to comply with the credit reporting provisions of Regulation F.

When it released its debt collection rule, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau did not make a lot of changes to how the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act restricts the use of harassing, oppressive, and abusive behavior, but it did make some subtle changes, and they are changes that collectors need to be aware of. In the latest episode of, “You Wanted a Rule, You Got a Rule,” John Bedard of Bedard Law Group finishes off Section 1006.14 of the debt collection rule, walking through some of the new wrinkles that are different from what was originally included in the FDCPA.

In this episode, John talks about what a legal presumption is and why that is important in the context of complying with the debt collection rule, and breaks down the call frequency caps limiting the number of communication attempts and communications that collectors can have with consumers.

While largely unchanged from what is included in the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, how collectors can use location information calls to try and locate individuals with unpaid debts as detailed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in its debt collection rule does have some subtle changes from the statute, and collectors would do well to note those changes while also using the opportunity to refresh their knowledge of what is required during these conversations.