Please, no Encore

Encore Capital Group, a publicly held San Diego company that buys bad debt cheaply and then pressures debtors to cough up, agreed Friday, January 9, to reform.

The company reached agreement with the State of New York to ask that more than 4500 improperly obtained judgments totaling nearly $18 million be thrown out, according to Bloomberg News. Encore will also pay civil penalties of $675,000. New York has previously taken action against other allegedly improper debt-collection practices.

Said the New York Times, "The same problems that dogged the foreclosure of homes — and prompted public outcry and a multibillion-dollar settlement by some of the nation's biggest banks — are increasingly showing up in the practices of large buyers of bad consumer debt."

Encore stock rose 16 cents Friday on a day when the market was getting creamed. It is down 1.44 percent this morning (January 12). The company's motto is, "We help people recover from financial difficulty."