Public Act 097-1070
 
HB5016 EnrolledLRB097 18247 CEL 63473 b

    AN ACT concerning regulation.
 
    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
 
    Section 5. The Collection Agency Act is amended by changing
Section 2 and by adding Sections 8.5 and 8.6 as follows:
 
    (225 ILCS 425/2)  (from Ch. 111, par. 2002)
    (Section scheduled to be repealed on January 1, 2016)
    Sec. 2. Definitions. In this Act:
    "Charge-off balance" means an account principal and other
legally collectible costs, expenses, and interest accrued
prior to the charge-off date, less any payments or settlement.
    "Charge-off date" means the date on which a receivable is
treated as a loss or expense.
    "Consumer credit transaction" means a transaction between
a natural person and another person in which property, service,
or money is acquired on credit by that natural person from such
other person primarily for personal, family, or household
purposes.
    "Consumer debt" or "consumer credit" means money,
property, or their equivalent, due or owing or alleged to be
due or owing from a natural person by reason of a consumer
credit transaction.
    "Creditor" means a person who extends consumer credit to a
debtor.
    "Current balance" means the charge-off balance plus any
legally collectible costs, expenses, and interest, less any
credits or payments.
    "Debt" means money, property, or their equivalent which is
due or owing or alleged to be due or owing from a natural
person to another person.
    "Debt buyer" means a person or entity that is engaged in
the business of purchasing delinquent or charged-off consumer
loans or consumer credit accounts or other delinquent consumer
debt for collection purposes, whether it collects the debt
itself or hires a third-party for collection or an
attorney-at-law for litigation in order to collect such debt.
    "Debt collection" means any act or practice in connection
with the collection of consumer debts.
    "Debt collector", "collection agency", or "agency" means
any person who, in the ordinary course of business, regularly,
on behalf of himself or herself or others, engages in debt
collection.
    "Debtor" means a natural person from whom a debt collector
seeks to collect a consumer debt that is due and owing or
alleged to be due and owing from such person.
    "Department" means Division of Professional Regulation
within the Department of Financial and Professional
Regulation.
    "Director" means the Director of the Division of
Professional Regulation within the Department of Financial and
Professional Regulation.
    "Person" means a natural person, partnership, corporation,
limited liability company, trust, estate, cooperative,
association, or other similar entity.
(Source: P.A. 95-437, eff. 1-1-08.)
 
    (225 ILCS 425/8.5 new)
    Sec. 8.5. Debt buyers. A debt buyer shall be subject to all
of the terms, conditions, and requirements of this Act, except
as otherwise provided for in subsection (b) of Section 8.6 of
this Act.
 
    (225 ILCS 425/8.6 new)
    Sec. 8.6. Debt buyer activities.
    (a) Debt buyers initiating actions upon an obligation
arising out of a consumer debt shall be commenced within the
applicable statute of limitations period.
    (b) With respect to its activities as a debt buyer in
pursuing the collection of accounts it owns, a debt buyer shall
be subject to all of the terms, conditions, and requirements of
this Act, except that a debt buyer shall not be required to (i)
file and maintain in force a surety bond under Section 8 of
this Act; (ii) maintain a trust account under Section 8c of
this Act; (iii) procure written authorization to refer the
account to an attorney for suit under Section 8a-1 of this Act;
or (iv) adhere to the assignment for collection criteria under
Section 8b of this Act.
    (c) The Attorney General may enforce against debt buyers
the provisions identified in Section 9.7 of this Act as an
unlawful practice under the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive
Business Practices Act.
 
    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect January
1, 2013.