U.S. debt collectors seek cellphone, e-mail access

By John Poirier

WASHINGTON, Oct 10 (Reuters) - The debt collection industry urged the U.S. government on Wednesday to lift a decades old ban against using e-mail accounts or cellphone numbers to contact consumers who have fallen behind in their payments.

As more Americans drop home telephone land lines and rely on cellphones, debt collectors are finding it harder to reach delinquent account holders and the industry potentially faces higher losses, industry executives said at a forum sponsored by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

"If we can't contact somebody, that's a big problem," said Robert DiGennaro, chief executive officer of Austin, Texas- based debt collection company Collins Financial Services Inc.

Debt collection firms are third parties that have bought a variety of unpaid debt and bills such as student loans and credit card and medical bills.

Collectors are allowed to call consumers at work and home between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m., but are prohibited by law from contacting them on their cell phones or by e-mail.

But contacts through e-mails and cellphones are not off limits if they are included in the fine print of the terms of the original contract of the debt product such as credit cards.

"Today, we find that less than half of our accounts have land lines," DiGennaro said.

The other half are using cellphones, e-mails, and instant and text messaging products.