The CFPB has issued a new compliance bulletin (2017-11) to provide guidance on pay-by-phone fees.  The guidance includes examples of conduct relating to pay-by-phone practices identified by the CFPB in its supervision and enforcement activities that may violate or risk violating the Dodd-Frank UDAAP prohibition or the FDCPA.

The enforcement actions cited in the guidance involving alleged UDAAP violations arising from pay-by-phone practices date from 2015 and, while recent CFPB supervisory highlights have discussed potential FDCPA violations arising from “convenience fees” charged by debt collectors to process payments by phone, recent supervisory highlights have not discussed potential UDAAP violations arising from pay-by-phone practices. … Continue Reading