Imagine this.

You go to make a payment on a debt you have incurred, like a bill for medical services or your student loans. You log into the electronic payment portal, and once you get to the payment stage, you notice that there’s an extra fee added on at the end, on top of the amount you were about to pay. It’s a transaction fee, or a payment processing fee. The debt collector is forcing you to pay an extra fee just so you can pay your bills.

This isn’t yet reality, but if the Pay-to-Pay Bill (Senate Bill 6118/House Bill 2635) passes this session, the scenario described above could indeed become very real. Debt collection companies are trying to impose a processing fee (the lesser of 2.35% of the payment or $35) on all electronic transactions, simply because they don’t want to pay the transaction fee that credit card companies charge for electronic payments themselves. Instead, these debt collection companies want to pass on the fee to people who are already in debt—making people pay extra to pay their bills.

Luckily, the Pay-to-Pay bill only had its first hearing today (jump to 1:24:40 to watch speakers testify against the bill), and advocates still have time to stop it. Send your lawmakers an email today urging them to vote against this bill and stop it from making any further progress through the legislature!

We also have updates on another consumer protections bill—House Bill 2476. This bill is one of our 2020 session priority bills. In Washington state, over 80% of suits brought by debt buyers end in default judgements in favor of the debt buyer. This means that Washingtonians are having their accounts and wages garnished without a fair chance in court. If passed, House Bill 2476 would require that debt buyers first must prove that the debt is actually owed by the person they are naming in the lawsuit, before they can file a claim or obtain a default judgement. It’s a common-sense policy that will expand protections for consumers and create more regulation and transparency in Washington’s debt buying industry. Lawmakers are voting on whether they should allow it to move foward tomorrow morning, January 24, so send them an email urging them to act on this bill!

And finally, once last advocacy ask: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). House Bill 2441, which would strengthen the TANF program by undoing harsh policies that keep low-income families from accessing TANF, had a hearing yesterday in the House Committee on Human Services & Early Learning. Christianna, a community advocate and mother who relies on TANF to support her family, testified in support of the bill and talked about her experience on the program. If passed, HB 2441 would enact common-sense time limit extensions and ease harsh sanction policies, strengthening the program for the low-income children and parents who rely on its lifeline assistance. 

(Christianna is at center, with her daughter and nephew, along with staff from Poverty Action, Solid Ground, and Washington Budget & Policy Center.)

House Bill 2441 is scheduled for an executive session soon, on January 28. Now is the time to let your lawmaker know that a vote to move this bill forward is a vote for the economic security of Washington's low-income families! Send them an email here.