Robo-call bill – Dead!

The robo call bill died in Congress in mid-December 2011.  This bill was called the “Mobile Informational Call Act of 2011”.  It would have permitted companies to contact businesses and consumers via automated dialing to their cell phone which also included texting.

Reasons for support

This bill was supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Air Transport Association and other groups representing bankers, mortgage lenders, debt collectors and college loan lenders. Below are some of the reasons these groups supported this bill:

Some agencies wanted to be able to contact people in an emergency.

Other businesses wanted to be able to reach consumers for bill collection purposes or advertising.

Politicians wanted to be able to get their campaign messages out using cell phones.

More people have cell phones than ever before and some don’t have land lines. Some that have land lines don’t answer them anymore.

Privacy and consumer cost issues

The bill was killed due to consumer groups and attorney generals’ opposition to it, because of privacy right concerns and costs to consumers. Consumers were concerned that they would receive nuisance calls and had to pay for incoming calls and texts.  Consumers with limited budgets may be on cell phone plans that charge for each call and text or have a limited number of free minutes.  Attorney generals from 48 of the 50 states sent opposition letters to Congress. In addition, a poll cast by 60,000 on msnbc.com found that 99.5 percent opposed the bill.

The current law, Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), prohibits businesses from contacting you by robo call to your cell phone unless you have given them permission to do so or in the case of an emergency.  This new bill would have let them contact you by robo call to your cell phone.

Here is another situation where public opinion won over.  This involved not only privacy issues but also additional costs to consumers. Bill collectors were very supportive of this bill.  Politicians wanted to be able to get their campaign messages out using cell phones also.

Credit Damage Expert, John Ulzheimer, is the President of Consumer Education at SmartCredit.com, the credit blogger for Mint.com, and a Contributor for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.  He is an expert on credit reporting, credit scoring and identity theft. Formerly of FICO, Equifax and Credit.com, John is the only recognized credit expert who actually comes from the credit industry.  Follow him on Twitter here.

Categorised in: Debt, Debt Management, Financial, Government, Money & Identity

This post was written by John Ulzheimer