Monthly Archives: June 2018

Don’t be harassed by Debt Collecting Agencies: Know Your ICAA Rights

The ICAA was created to protect citizens with debts awaiting collection. The Illinois collection act demands that the debt collecting agency possess the necessary licenses and operate in line the collection regulations when taking debts. Learn your debt settlement rights below if you’ve been having a problem with debt collectors.

This act gives anyone in debt the right to ask the collector to verify the accurateness of the debt details— also known as debt validation.

These state regulations match with the provisions of the FDCPA (federal fair debt collection practices) act that controls debt collection practices nationwide.

Debt collection agencies must abide by the regulations in their states as well as those of the FDCPA. These regulations are laid down to protect consumers from harassment, deception and unfair practices by debt collectors.

The ICAA, for example, demands that all debt collectors (also known as licensees) acquire operating licenses before they start selling their services. Within the law is also a clause that controls how a debt collector should contact and communicate with a person. What’s more, the act also tells the agency what to do in case the debtor challenges the accuracy of the debt.

Nevertheless, the ICAA doesn’t demand that any firms or persons collecting debts to act under its rules. These regulations only apply to agencies that are registered in the debt collection space. Any company “confined” in other dealings besides collection can’t be forced to meet the terms of the ICAA.

Here’s a list of professions and industries that are excused from the ICAA.

  • Lawyers
  • Billing companies that strictly deal with sending account notices
  • Retail stores
  • Banking and financial institutions, e.g. credit unions
  • Real estate brokerage agencies
  • Homeowners association – a.k.a. unit owners association under Illinois law

What Bad Debt Collection Practices does the ICAA protect you from?

The act defines the ways a collecting entity can or cannot use to take debts from you, how they should talk to you, and how they communicate to the participating third parties. There are also provisions within the law for defaulters who wish to dispute debts.

The debt collecting agency is not allowed to use violence or force against a debtor, their family or property. Threatening defaulters is also against the provisions of the ICAA. Find out more actions that the ICAA safeguards you against whenever a collection agency approaches you to take debt.

  1. The debt collecting firm cannot use abusive or obscene language.
  2. The collection agency cannot use prosecution or arrest threats unless the case has a basis for criminal complaints.
  3. The law says licensees are not allowed to confiscate a defaulter’s property but fails to mention that they need a court order to do so.
  4. Licensee cannot threaten to tell or publish the default to the public.
  5. Debt collection agencies cannot use fake documents or impersonate an attorney or any state official.
  6. The debt collector can’t threaten to add more charges to the first debt unless authorized by the official lenders and these extra fees must be reasonable.

In conclusion

Anyone who feels a licensee violated their rights can file their grievances to the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

Author bio: Electronic payments expert Blair Thomas is the co-founder of high-risk payment processing company eMerchantBroker. His job includes setting up high risk accounts for debt collection agencies. He’s just as passionate about his business as he is with traveling and spending time with his dog Cooper.

Team NZ Separates For America’s Cup Regatta

The Emirates Team New Zealand recently set up an individual firm to organize the America’s Cup in 2021 in Auckland. Tina Symmans the director of the company would be the chair of ACE (America’s Cup Event) Ltd. The Board of ACE will be occupied by Greg Horton as he has been on a part of Emirates Team New Zealand already. They both will resign from their existing directorships post.

Tina Symmans became the board 3 years back prior to the Bermuda challenge and had a roller coaster journey of the campaign due to lack of funds. As a result, it caused suspicion over the team’s efficiency to sponsor the challenge in Bermuda prior to the success to retain America’s Cup in New Zealand. Symmans said there had to be a great amount of effort put in behind the scene. The location of the event has been finalized and worked out on how to work with Auckland City and Government as partners in addition to putting in strict governance structures in place.

All this has led to a thick foundation to start the enormous tasks to be performed by ACE as well as the stakeholders.  America’s Cup Event has involved Calder and Mayo as the Event Directors with the skills and experience to design and manage sailing events. Everyone is aware of the position they hold and the excitement has built up. There are massive challenges considering the size of the event, and the international recognition it gets.

However, as a team, they will work jointly and make it successful as per Symmans. There is some additional work performed across the council and government that have planned and designed the infrastructure in addition to ways to enhance the economic benefits through the event held in the city. One of the greatest challenges is to ensure there is segregation of work between the team and the event as this would help to focus on achieving the Cup.

Perfect Engagement in the World of Cryptocurrency

Digital currencies, supported by “blockchain” technology, are generating new paradigms that revolutionise our conventional ideas of the notion of the State, its areas of spatial influence and particularly it’s Institutions.

The Analysis Now

Through a brief analysis of the technology of virtual currencies and their associated areas, we propose that we are facing a paradigm shift of traditional geopolitical conceptions, which should be assumed by different political, business and military leaders, with the aim of that, in a new digital scenario, optimise their organisational management processes.

Better Details

In fact, at first glance, the cryptographic phenomenon of “chain blocks” in English blockchain has until now its focal point in the generation of new currencies, based on distributed computer programs, outside the regulations of Central Banks and Governments.

No doubt that transactions are made between bidder and plaintiff, without going through an intermediary financial institution, has advantages and disadvantages, but it is unavoidable that to avoid fraudulent use of such transactions, a regulation is required to prevent the proliferation of illicit trade in the context of drugs, terrorism, assassins, money laundering, tax evasion, among others. Read more now in https://www.amarkets.com/trading/accounts-overview/.

  • How do we regulate a decentralised and anonymous system, arising from technological innovation, without eliminating the advantages that the system could deliver to global trade, but in parallel, avoiding all those disadvantages exposed in the preceding paragraph?
  • With the emergence of cryptographic block technology, geographic paradigms break down, expanding transactions through global computational networks that do not respect the sovereignty, physical borders, laws and national financial systems. Without a doubt, we are facing a new paradigm of causality that we call Digital Geopolitics.

So then, through the phenomenon of cryptocurrencies and their technology, we can witness some structural changes, which must take into account political, business and military leaders when defining policies and strategies to conduct their States, Holding Companies or Institutions of Security and Defense.

A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” –It is where it follows that there is no geographical conditioning, quite the contrary, transactions made through IP networks and approved by “computer miners” who perform transactional processing and security, are completed ubiquitously, that is, they are present in time.

Consequently, through collaborative processing in networks, the vital core has no latitude and longitude coordinates but has IP addresses of thousands of computers distributed anywhere in the world.

Indeed, the multiple applications guarded by thousands of CPUs that certify transactions in a “large digital ledger” are expanding rapidly, and potential applications are emerging using “blockchain” technology.

In short, in the Political and Strategic context has emerged a new dimension of virtual spaces management under the umbrella of what we call Digital Geopolitics. Which appears as a product of a system of electronic transactions based on distributed cryptology, and whose applications in other fields of society, will expand increasingly in the coming years, which should call our attention in search of an answer to the question posed above.