TMCnews Featured Article

How much control should consumers have over the type of calls they receive to their mobile phones? If you’re the mobile phone user, you may say you want complete control. If you’re a company trying to collect on a debt, you may want some freedom to reach those who owe you money. Congress is trying to lay the foundation for what should be allowed and the predictive dialer is often involved.

The discussion around autodialers has gotten a lot of attention as of late. While there are plenty of companies that want the opportunity to put the technology in place so as to reduce the cost of making direct connections, not all will be given that right. If you’re trying to collect on a debt, this capability is important so you can recover as much of the original debt as possible. Congress believes this applies to those who owe on federal student loans, yet some Senators disagree.

A letter was sent to the Department of Education (ED) by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) asking the department not to allow these unsolicited calls using a predictive dialer by debt collectors, referring to the technology as robocalling. The letter called into reference the TCPA law and how it works to protect consumers from phone calls to their mobile phones that are both unwanted and harassing. The Senators believe that by allowing this action, the floodgates will effectively be opened.

An interesting editorial was shared in the Inside Arm in which the author pointed out that the underlying purpose of the TCPA was not to protect consumers from those who are seeking that they satisfy a debt. The goal was to eliminate telemarketing calls about products or services the consumer may or may not want. The individual doesn’t get to hide behind the law if they owe money and they are not making attempts to satisfy the debt.

At the same time, to associate the predictive dialer with the negative term, robocalling already puts the activity in a less than positive light. Robocalling, at its core, is repeatedly making random calls to every number on a list until a connection is made. The predictive dialer used in collection calls and other legitimate telemarketing is meant to enable the right connections with live individuals on both ends of the line. 

The use of the predictive dialer simply means the companies trying to collect on the student debt are using the latest technology to work efficiently. As an increasing number of consumers use only their mobile phone to stay connected, eliminating this access for those who are trying to collect on a debt gives one too many points to the consumer who really should just pay what is owed.