Daily Digest – October 19. Unpaid School Lunches Causing Collection Problems; Federal Government at Odds Over Autodialers

Some quick links to start your Monday. A ‘Goodfella’ is going on on trial for a heist from 35 years ago … Whether McDonald’s launching all-day breakfast is a success or not appears to be in dispute … Flight attendants and farmers are just two jobs that could be obsolete soon … Netflix hopes there is a market in making movies that were shunned by movie studios … Drones are going to have to be registered with the federal government … China’s slowing economy is causing concerns worldwide … The most popular TV show set in every state … FBI headquarters is falling apart … The morning rituals of successful people … The problem with best practices.

NEWS 

• Unpaid school lunches are becoming a problem across the country. In Virginia Beach, Virginia, for example, the amount of unpaid school lunches quadrupled in a calendar year, to more than $250,000. In many cities and school districts, hiring collection agencies is an option that is being considered to help recoup some of those unpaid bills. Virginia Beach’s collection efforts have yielded about a 40% recovery rate.

• Branches of the federal government appear to be at odds with one another when it comes to deciding whether collectors should be able to use autodialers to contact delinquent borrowers. Everyone in the industry is aware of the Federal Communications Commission’s stance on the subject (they’re against it), but the Department of Education is advocating a plan that would allow student loan servicers to be able to use autodialer technology to contact delinquent borrowers. Payment rates are higher when collectors can actually get a borrower on the phone, according to a report from the Department of Education.

• After reaching a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over claims that it was using illegal collection tactics, a large auto lender, Consumer Portfolio Services, is detailing how it has changed its collection practices to be less threatening than it was in the past. The upshot, according to the company’s CEO, is that instead of demanding payment and threatening repossession when the borrower was 30 days delinquent, the lender now does it when the borrower is 90 days past due.

Saturday Night Live took on the Democratic presidential candidate debate

 

I have to link to John Oliver taking on my native Canada

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