Disclaimer About Third-Party Websites

• Peter A. Holland, Junk Justice: a Statistical Analysis of 4,400 Lawsuits Filed by Debt Buyers, 26 Loyola Consumer Law Review 179 (2014).
• Peter A. Holland, Debt-Buyer Lawsuits and Inaccurate Data, 25 Communities & Banking 20 (Spring 2014).
• Peter A. Holland, Defending Junk-Debt-Buyer Lawsuits, 46 Clearinghouse Review 12 May-June (2012)
• Peter A. Holland, The One Hundred Billion Dollar Problem in Small Claims Court: Robo-Signing and Lack of Proof of Debt Buyer Cases, 6 J. Bus. & Tech. L. 259 (2011)
• Mary Spector, Debts, Defaults and Details: Exploring the Impact of Debt Collection Litigation on Consumers and Courts (December 1, 2011). Virginia Law & Business Review, Vol. 6, No. 2, p. 257, Fall 2011; SMU Dedman School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 85.
• Rachel Terp & Lauren Bowne, PAST DUE: Why Debt Collection Practices and the Debt Buying Industry Need Reform Now (2011)
• Robert J. Hobbs & Rick Jurgens, Nat’l Consumer Law Ctr., The Debt Machine: How the Collection Industry Hounds Consumers and Overwhelms the Courts (2010)
• Clinton Rooney, Defense of Assigned Consumer Debts. 43 Clearinghouse Rev. 542 (March/April, 2010)
• Robert Martin, Dist. Council 37 Mun. Emps. Legal Servs., Where's the Proof? When Debt Buyers Are Asked to Substantiate Their Claims in Collection Lawsuits Against NYC Employees and Retirees, They Don't, (2009)
• Lauren Goldberg, Dealing in Debt: The High Stakes World of Debt Collection After FDCPA, 79 S. Cal. L. Rev. 711 (2006).

Media Coverage

• Bank of America Sold Card Debts to Collectors Despite Faulty Records, Jeff Horwitz, American Banker (March 29, 2012)
• OCC Probing JPMorgan Chase Credit Card Collections, Jeff Horwitz, American Banker (March 12, 2012)
• Debt Collectors Face a Hazard: Writer's Cramp, David Segal, N.Y. Times, (November 1, 2010)
• Boom in Debt Buying Fuels Another Boom — in Lawsuits, Jessica Silver-Greenberg, Wall Street Journal, (November 29, 2010)

Debt Collection Industry Papers

• DBA Int’l, DBA International's Paper on the Collection of Past Statute Debts  (2007)
• DBA Int’l, The Debt Buying Industry: A White Paper (2012)
• Ernst & Young, The Impact of Third-Party Debt Collection on the National and State Economies (2012), (commissioned by ACA International)

Consumer Credit And Informational Reports

• Summary of Rights under the FCRA
• Consumer Credit Reporting – FDIC
• Free Annual Credit Report Request
• Fair and Accurate Transactions Act of 2003 – (full text of law) To amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to prevent identity theft, improve the resolution of consumer disputes, improve the accuracy of consumer records, make improvements in the use of and consumer access to, credit information, and for other purposes.
• How to Dispute Credit Report Errors – Federal Trade Commission Publication
• Consumer's Guide to Credit Reports and Credit Scores – Federal Reserve
• Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
• Fair Credit Reporting Act
• Guidelines for Furnishers of Information to Consumer Reporting Agencies
• Federal Trade Commission – Report to Congress Under Section 319 of the Fair and Accurate Credit 15 USC § 1681 et seq. ("FCRA") (December 2012)
• Order Your FULL Consumer File Disclosure from Lexis Nexis (Free) – Public records, including liens and judgments, employment records, residential/renter records, and insurance reports, are gathered about consumers from various sources and pulled together into consumer reports. LexisNexis has products called Accurint and KnowX which provide this information to subscribers upon request. You are entitled to free copies of the reports maintained on you.
• Order Your CLUE Consumer Reports (Free) – The CLUE Personal Property report provides a seven-year history of losses associated with an individual and his/her personal property. The CLUE Auto report provides a seven-year history of automobile insurance losses associated with an individual.

1. Resources

• Consumer Action Handbook – Use the Consumer Action Handbook (CAH) to get help with consumer purchases, problems, and complaints. Find consumer contacts at hundreds of companies and trade associations, local, State, and federal government agencies, national consumer organizations, and more.
• US Government Printing Office – (Government publications)
• Federal Agency Consumer Contacts – For information or to file a complaint about a bank, savings and loan, credit union, credit card, or other financial institution, contact one of these federal agencies.
• Filing a complaint against a bank – Federal Reserve
• Consumer's Guide to Credit Card Protection Laws – Federal Reserve
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau 
• CFPB –  Debt collection examination procedures (October 24, 2012)