In the News
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Bloomberg Businessweek: How Debt Collectors Ruin Credit Reports With ‘Sewer Service’
Bloomberg Businessweek — Creditors filed “upwards of 200,000” debt collection lawsuits in New York State in 2011, according to a report this week from the New Economy Project, a community advocacy group that has sued debt collectors in the past.
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Buffalo News: N.Y. Consumer Group Targets Deceptiveness of ‘Debt Buyers’
The Buffalo News — Hundreds of thousands of New York consumers are victimized by “predatory” debt-collection practices in which “debt buyers” flood the courts with unsubstantiated lawsuits and give inadequate legal warning to consumers in the hope that no one shows up to contest the claims, a new report by a consumer group said Monday.
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Syracuse Post-Standard: Report Finds Debt Collectors Abuse the Courts in Syracuse
Syracuse Post-Standard — Rosetta had no idea she had any outstanding debt until she was told at work that her wages were about to be garnished to repay the debt. The Syracuse woman, who didn’t want her last name used, said her identity had been stolen by someone who racked up more than $4,000 in…
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NBCNews.com: Courts Clogged by Debt Cases, ‘Rubber Stamp’ Rulings, Advocacy Group Says
NBCNews.com — In Rochester, N.Y., city court is a busy place – for debt collectors. Plaintiff’s lawyers seeking judgments against alleged debtors consume 89 percent of the court docket — 7,148 of the 8,032 lawsuits heard in city court during 2011 involved debt collection, a remarkable number.
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NY Times: Sallie Mae Will Split Old Loans From New
New York Times — The nation’s largest private student lender, Sallie Mae, is cleaving itself into two companies — a move that will create a new home for more than $100 billion ofstudent loans amid broad concerns from federal authorities and consumer advocates that graduates hobbled by debt are increasingly falling behind on their payments.
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NY Daily News: New York City Set to Sell Tax Liens on Homes Damaged by Hurricane Sandy to Debt Collectors
NY Daily News — Talk about kicking someone when they’re down. Hundreds of New York City homeowners hurt by Hurricane Sandy are about to get hit by another blow — the sale of their tax liens to debt collectors, the Daily News has learned.
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NY1: Councilman, Advocate Push For Ending Employer Credit Checks
NY1 Road to City Hall — The Road to City Hall’s Errol Louis had Sarah Ludwig from The Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project and Brooklyn City Councilman Brad Lander discuss their efforts to stop employers from using credit checks on job applicants.
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WNYC: Sampson Corruption Scandal Hits Home for One Family
WNYC’s All Things Considered — William Easterling and his wife used to own 165 Forbell Street, a two-family home in Brooklyn on the border of Cypress Hills and Ozone Park. The couple raised their four kids there. But they haven’t lived there in almost 20 years.
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NY Times: The Long Shadow of Bad Credit in a Job Search
New York Times — The first couple of times Alfred J. Carpenter was turned down for a job, he didn’t know what to think.
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Bloomberg Business News: Predator Targets Hit as Banks Shut Branches Amid Profits
Bloomberg Business News — Banks that opened more than 15,000 branches across the U.S. in the decade leading to the financial crisis are retreating from lower-income neighborhoods, even as the industry posted its second-most-profitable year on record.