oh look a new one on board for collecting

[toofiegap]

this was on Breakfast telly and in papers

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-15870308

[citizenB]

KCC charges 15p per day for books that are returned late, up to a maximum of £6. For DVDs the rate is 50p.

 

The largest fine incurred in Kent last year was the maximum £25 issued for an item that was more than 50 days overdue.

 

So how is this going to be profitable for the DCA ? It will cost them more than that to send perhaps 2 - 3 letters - telephone calls ?

 

Unless of course there is a hidden agenda and they will now have access to quite a few names and addresses for other purposes ??

[citizenB]

http://www.unique-mgmt.com/SmallBalance.aspx

 

http://www.madisonlib.org/fines.html

 

This is the company - Unique Management Services.

 

If you ignore all the library's calls, emails, and letters, and choose to ignore the contacts from Unique Management, as a last resort you may be reported to a credit reporting service.

 

Please be assured this will happen only in extreme cases. As you are probably aware, once something is sent to a credit reporting service, it can lower your credit score.

 

The library is not instituting this system to punish you. We just want the materials returned and the fines paid so everyone can use the library. It's that simple.

 

So now you can be reported to a Credit reference agency for not returning a Library book !

 

That will encourage people to use the library, wont it ?

[toofiegap]

and how many innocent people will be part of the well renowned fishing trips used by DCA,s to try and collect these fines

[silverfox1961]

I would think that if, when signing up at your library, you didn't agree to your details being passed on the CRAs, they shouldn't be allowed to unless the council make public new terms of borrowing

[t_k]

What makes me laugh is how they think that being reported to a credit reference agency is somehow a bad thing & something to be afraid of! lol

[Tally2011]

This is the company - Unique Management Services.

 

So now you can be reported to a Credit reference agency for not returning a Library book !

 

That will encourage people to use the library, wont it ?

 

This is bogus. Only credit controllers registered in the UK can make reports to credit reference bureaus in the UK. This US company could not in a million years have such registration.

 

What concerns me, as with all off shoring, is how answerable to the Data Protection Act this US debt agency is.

[pixwix]

Now retired, I was a senior Librarian for many years. In my long experience, few 'fines' systems are worth the candle. In fact they can actively discourage people from returning books. They rarely even benefit the library concerned, as estimated fines (often hugely inflated) are typically deducted from budgets at the start of the year, forcing libraries to depend on the fine income. If everyone brought back their books on time, many libraries would be insolvent.

 

What often starts as an understandable attempt to recover books far too often ends in raw, crude income generation, of the kind whose hidden costs often outweigh benefits. On top of all that, the legal basis for library fines is often ambiguous.

 

In my own direct experience, the self-righteous mind-set of public employees 'punishing' the very public that employs them is a product of a top-heavy local government system that's now totally out of the control of those it's supposed to serve.

 

And if fines are ill-advised, then employing commercial debt collecting agencies is deplorable and, in my view, totally unprofessional.

[cerberusalert]

Since when was borrowing a library book akin to credit? I think someone is telling some porkies somewhere.

[Ell-enn]

and how is borrowing a book from a library the same as signing a credit agreement ? reporting to credit reference agencies ??? I don't think so !!

[count orlok]

we'll have to be careful about what books we borrow now, our credit files will now read;

 

Borrowed £1110 from RBS

borrowed £4567 from HBOS

Borrowed Lady Chatterley's Lover from Library

[rhino666]

"Kent County Council charges 15p per day for books that are returned late, up to a maximum of £6."

 

I've read that sentence a thousand times now.!!

Why would anyone send a DC out to collect £6 ????

[cerberusalert]

Maybe they'll do doorstep visits & collect the books?

[reallymadwoman]

Or maybe they're Stephen King's library police, in which case I'd never borrow another book again, just in case.

[pixwix]

"Kent County Council charges 15p per day for books that are returned late, up to a maximum of £6."

 

I've read that sentence a thousand times now.!!

Why would anyone send a DC out to collect £6 ????

 

Depends how many books are involved. Most libraries these days are quite liberal. Though if even a dozen books are involved the fines owing would seem to me to be well below the economic limit for a collection agency.

 

The point probably isn't so much the fines as the added charges (i.e. profits) for the collection agency. I wouldn't be surprised if (as usual in my direct experience within local government) the contract originated, like so many others, inside the local Lodge.

[bagpuss_24]

They'll be doing credit checks before you get a library card next.

 

10 years ago, I was rushed into hospital; just after taking out some books from the library - once I was discharged from hospital, and able to get around I returned the books - about 1month late (despite the fact I had asked someone to sort it for me). However - the fine was something like £1.50.

 

So how much does the fine have to be before they send in the Gestapo Collection Companies?

Surely - it isn't worth them pursuing £1.50; unless they charge stupid amounts for letters and doorstep visits that is.

Mind you, the point made earlier I agree with- the whole thing sounds a lot more lucrative as there is a nice big database of names, addresses etc to get hold of.

[pixwix]

They'll be doing credit checks before you get a library card next.

 

You may have a lot more than credit checks to worry about.

 

Although an ex-Librarian, I don't use my local public library. It may have something to do with the fact that - not being an avid Mills & Boon or celebrity biography reader - I find little to interest me. I in fact own more good books than in my local library. I'm not rich - you don't need to be, shopping for books online and in charity shops - I spend less than £20 a month and I'm a year behind reading my purchases.

 

My problem with libraries is more because - on joining up - I was offered a 'convenient' swipe card, which it didn't take me long to discover was in fact a back-door identity card - something I've fought half my life against. I burned it.

 

Paranoid, you may think? Many years ago, when book issues records were still manual, in smaller libraries at least, I was asked by the police to hand over my readership files so they could check what everyone had been reading. I told them I would burn the files first. Most of my colleagues in other branches complied without demur. I was threatened with prosecution until the matter (somehow ) hit the media, at which point the police ran for cover. I would imagine these days, with digital files and compliant petty officials, your reading habits are probably a matter of record for any minimally-official (or Lodge-sponsored) busybody who wants to see the library files.

 

For those who might be saying by now "if you've done nothing wrong you have nothing to be afraid of" - IMHO you're part of the problem. A society without privacy - or a society (like ours increasingly) where privacy depends on wealth - is not a free society. IMHO public library records are no longer private - read the fine print. I'll carry on buying what I want to read. If nothing else I at least know where my book was last.

[cerberusalert]

I'm surprised you use the internet considering your concern about big brother watching you.

[bagpuss_24]

You may have a lot more than credit checks to worry about.

My problem with libraries is more because - on joining up - I was offered a 'convenient' swipe card, which it didn't take me long to discover was in fact a back-door identity card - something I've fought half my life against. I burned it.

 

Paranoid, you may think? Many years ago, when book issues records were still manual, in smaller libraries at least, I was asked by the police to hand over my readership files so they could check what everyone had been reading. I told them I would burn the files first. Most of my colleagues in other branches complied without demur. I was threatened with prosecution until the matter (somehow ) hit the media, at which point the police ran for cover. I would imagine these days, with digital files and compliant petty officials, your reading habits are probably a matter of record for any minimally-official (or Lodge-sponsored) busybody who wants to see the library files.

 

For those who might be saying by now "if you've done nothing wrong you have nothing to be afraid of" - IMHO you're part of the problem. A society without privacy - or a society (like ours increasingly) where privacy depends on wealth - is not a free society. IMHO public library records are no longer private - read the fine print. I'll carry on buying what I want to read. If nothing else I at least know where my book was last.

 

I couldn't agree more.

I once worked for one of our major TV broadcasters - who introduced swipe "access" passes to all staff and Freelancers - that turned out to be a card that wasn't just to get in and out - it tracked your movements around the respective buildings, logged the times, even you could put credit on it and use it on the phones or pay for food/drink from vending machines, as well as use it to access the toiliets.

When I mentioned it at a Union meeting- it was thought I was making it up; until most of the freelance staff complained- one producing a weekly printout of building movements, who used the phone, what they spent at Vending machines, when they went to the Loo etc.

 

Indeed - if you have done nothing wrong, then why should you be worried - however, it is still a concern on how your/our details are handled, where they are used etc.

This country has more or less become well known for passing on details here and there, and not to mention leaving laptops, CDs, USB sticks et al on public transport.

Not to forget the current "phone hacking" stories don't offer much confidence in privacy either.

[caledfwlch]

If you do some googling, you will find an online version of Kent Libraries membership application form.

 

It specifically prohibits the passing of users information to any organisation outside the Library without the users permission.

 

They are going to get themselves in deep legal and financial trouble over this one.

[cerberusalert]

EU proposes enormous data reform

 

Huge reforms to the way data is used and stored on individuals and businesses have been proposed by the European Commission (EC).

 

The EC has suggested radical updates to the 1995 EU data protection rules designed to strengthen online privacy rights and boost Europe’s digital economy.

http://www.credittoday.co.uk/article/13322/online-news/eu-proposes-enormous-data-reform