When a consumer falls behind on loan or credit card payments, the bank often "sells" the account to a debt buying company for a few pennies on the dollar.
Debt buyers contribute nothing to society. Yet, they are allowed to obtain windfall profits by pursuing impoverished consumers for the full face value of such debts. This is unfair.
Debt buying companies such as Encore Capital Group have made millions of dollars in this manner, often by garnishing the wages of the poor and the middle class.
If a bank is going to sell a consumer's debt for pennies on the dollar, the bank should be required to notify that consumer, and allow that consumer a fair chance to bid on and purchase his/her own debt, on terms just as favorable as the terms offered to any other debt buyer.