 According to a 2005 publication by the Association of Credit and Collection Professionals, (ACA) by 2005, as the visibility and profitability of the industry grew, so did competition, both in terms of the number of debt buyers and the rising prices of bad debt.A July 2006 article in "The New York Times" reported that the Federal Trade Commission, received 66,627 complaints from consumers about "third-party debt collectors" in 2005 compared to 11,820 in 1999.In 2007 the total outstanding credit card debt rose to over $838 billion and the delinquency rate on credit cards payments rose to its highest level in 18 years during the Great Recession in the United States.