{"id":11461,"date":"2023-12-15T20:41:10","date_gmt":"2023-12-15T20:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/business\/consumer-bureau-orders-debt-collection-agency-to-shut-down-for-illegal-practices\/"},"modified":"2023-12-15T20:41:11","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T20:41:11","slug":"consumer-bureau-orders-debt-collection-agency-to-shut-down-for-illegal-practices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/?p=11461","title":{"rendered":"Consumer bureau orders debt collection agency to shut down for illegal practices"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\n The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Friday ordered Commonwealth Financial Systems, a debt collection agency specializing in medical debt, to shut down as a result of what CFPB determined were illegal collection practices.\n <\/p>\n

\n Specifically, the CFPB said that the company, which is based in Dickson City, Pennsylvania, \u201cfailed to conduct reasonable investigations of disputed debts and failed to inform consumer reporting companies that certain information was being disputed \u2026 (and) continued to attempt to collect disputed debts without substantiating documentation.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The first action violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the second violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the bureau said.\n <\/p>\n

\n CFPB, which is charged with enforcing consumer protection laws, ordered the company to immediately shut down, banning it from \u201cparticipating in or assisting others in any debt collection activities, debt buying, debt selling, and consumer reporting activities.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n It also ordered Commonwealth to tell all consumer reporting companies that they should delete all collection accounts for those consumers about whom Commonwealth had provided information.\n <\/p>\n

\n Lastly, it ordered the company to pay a $95,000 fine to the CFPB\u2019s victim compensation fund. (Here\u2019s a list of other enforcement actions it has taken against other debt collection agencies in the past.)\n <\/p>\n

\n Commonwealth has not responded to CNN Business\u2019 request for comment.\n <\/p>\n

\n CFPB and some states aim to remove medical bills from credit reports
\n<\/h2>\n

\n In September, the agency announced it would seek to remove medical bills from credit reports altogether, and it told CNN this week it expects to propose a rule doing just that next year.\n <\/p>\n

\n If such a rule is finalized, consumer credit companies nationwide would be barred from including\u00a0medical debt\u00a0and collection information on reports that creditors use to make underwriting decisions.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cResearch shows that medical bills have little predictive value in credit decisions, yet tens of millions of American households are dealing with medical debt on their credit reports,\u201d CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in September. \u201cWhen someone gets sick, they should be able to focus on getting better, rather than fighting debt collectors trying to extort them into paying bills they may not even owe.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In the meantime, two states \u2014 New York and Colorado \u2014 have gotten ahead of that decision.\n <\/p>\n

\n Earlier this week, <\/strong>New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill prohibiting medical debt\u00a0from being collected by credit reporting agencies or included in a consumer\u2019s credit report.\u00a0Colorado recently enacted a similar ban.\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Friday ordered Commonwealth Financial Systems, a debt collection agency specializing in medical debt, to shut down as a result of what CFPB determined were illegal collection practices. Specifically, the CFPB said that the company, which is based in Dickson City, Pennsylvania, \u201cfailed to conduct reasonable investigations of disputed debts and failed to inform consumer reporting companies that certain information was being disputed \u2026 (and) continued to attempt to collect disputed debts without substantiating documentation.\u201d The first action violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the second violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\nConsumer bureau orders debt collection agency to shut down for illegal practices | ConnectWithFund<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Friday ordered Commonwealth Financial Systems, a debt collection agency specializing in medical debt, to shut\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/?p=11461\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Consumer bureau orders debt collection agency to shut down for illegal practices | ConnectWithFund\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Friday ordered Commonwealth Financial Systems, a debt collection agency specializing in medical debt, to shut\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/?p=11461\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ConnectWithFund\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-12-15T20:41:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-15T20:41:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/gettyimages-1704681885.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/?p=11461\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/?p=11461\",\"name\":\"Consumer bureau orders debt collection agency to shut down for illegal practices | ConnectWithFund\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-15T20:41:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-15T20:41:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9344cb2de07361e178f5c834d2167e52\"},\"description\":\"The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Friday ordered Commonwealth Financial Systems, a debt collection agency specializing in medical debt, to shut\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/?p=11461#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/?p=11461\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/?p=11461#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Consumer bureau orders debt collection agency to shut down for illegal practices\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/\",\"name\":\"FinMarkPros\",\"description\":\"Latest Finance News and Updates\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9344cb2de07361e178f5c834d2167e52\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3740b286006c76c86a45c4879850da000667bb6f5bbe053edd4a416d2cc4fb80?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3740b286006c76c86a45c4879850da000667bb6f5bbe053edd4a416d2cc4fb80?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Consumer bureau orders debt collection agency to shut down for illegal practices | ConnectWithFund","description":"The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Friday ordered Commonwealth Financial Systems, a debt collection agency specializing in medical debt, to shut","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/?p=11461","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Consumer bureau orders debt collection agency to shut down for illegal practices | ConnectWithFund","og_description":"The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Friday ordered Commonwealth Financial Systems, a debt collection agency specializing in medical debt, to shut","og_url":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/?p=11461","og_site_name":"ConnectWithFund","article_published_time":"2023-12-15T20:41:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-12-15T20:41:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":450,"url":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/gettyimages-1704681885.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/?p=11461","url":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/?p=11461","name":"Consumer bureau orders debt collection agency to shut down for illegal practices | ConnectWithFund","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-12-15T20:41:10+00:00","dateModified":"2023-12-15T20:41:11+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9344cb2de07361e178f5c834d2167e52"},"description":"The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Friday ordered Commonwealth Financial Systems, a debt collection agency specializing in medical debt, to shut","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/?p=11461#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/?p=11461"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/?p=11461#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Consumer bureau orders debt collection agency to shut down for illegal practices"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/","name":"FinMarkPros","description":"Latest Finance News and Updates","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9344cb2de07361e178f5c834d2167e52","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3740b286006c76c86a45c4879850da000667bb6f5bbe053edd4a416d2cc4fb80?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3740b286006c76c86a45c4879850da000667bb6f5bbe053edd4a416d2cc4fb80?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/connectwithfund.com"],"url":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11461"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11463,"href":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11461\/revisions\/11463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}