CO lawmakers want to give consumers more protection against zombie-debt collectors

A bipartisan group of legislators is backing a bill to give Colorado consumers more protection from unsavory debt collection tactics.

The bill would extend for 11 years the state Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which provides consumers with certain protections against debt collectors. It also would limit the ability of so-called zombie collectors — those who bundle, buy and sell spreadsheets of debts like commodities — to gain default judgments in Colorado county courts.

The legislation aims to help people like Pilar Chapa, a consumer advocate with her own story of debt collection abuses. She learned about a year ago that some debt buyer had taken her to court when her employer notified her that her wages were being garnished for a $706 debt that, with court costs and added fees, came to $1,001.30.

To this day, she said, she is dumbfounded by the court’s default judgment. Nobody served her with a court date notice. She doesn’t know what the original debt was, or whether it was hers. She doesn’t know who the original creditor was. She paid it off anyway, fearing lasting damage to her credit rating.

Read more: http://www.coloradoindependent.com/164591/co-lawmakers-consumer-protection-zombie-debt-collectors