The Consumers Law team recently scored a big win for Pennsylvania consumers against collections giant NCO.  On February 17, 2010, U.S. District Judge Ronald Buckwalter granted final approval of a class action settlement that delivers over $6 million dollars in relief for 2300+ PA consumers. Cary Flitter, Ted Lorenz and Andy Milz were class counsel.

The federal Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009, also known as the CreditCARD Act goes into effect February 22, 2010.  This law implements changes to many of the onerous conditions card issuers have imposed on consumers over the past twenty-plus years. 

This headline states the obvious, right?  BUT, some consumers are surprised to learn that closing a credit card account after it's paid off can result in a lower FICO credit score.  The way to avoid this problem used to be paying your account down to zero but keeping the card active.  But times have changed. 

Watch out, the debt collector that's been calling you and sending you collection letters might be your next Facebook "friend"...

According to this news report, debt collectors are starting to follow consumers via popular social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace:

According to a recent survey, debt collectors have been getting more aggressive and persistent with their collection calls.  These can lead to violations of a consumer protection statute, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. From creditcards.com: