Many consumers have their legal rights violated by collectors without even knowing it. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is designed to stop harassing, unfair, and abusive debt collection practices.
Knowing the important details of this law will help you stand up against abusive collection practices and stop unethical collection companies from violating your rights.
There are many requirements debt collectors must abide by per the FDCPA law.
Debt collectors are prohibited from telling others details about the consumer including that they owe a debt, they cannot speak with anyone other than the consume about the debt, not communicate through post card or have ANY markings on the outside of their envelope indicating they might be a debt collector or collection agent.
Basically, collection companies cannot use the fact that they are a debt collector to bully you into paying.
They cannot identify themselves as a debt collector to your employer or anyone at your work, and they cannot send mail identifying that they are a debt collector with the intent of causing embarrassment or another hardship to you.
Debt collectors are cannot call a consumer at an unusual time or place, including before 8 a.m. and after 9 p.m. A debt collector cannot contact a consumer at their workplace if they have reason to believe this is prohibited by the employer.
They are also required to immediately cease and desist contact with you if you are represented by and attorney, or if you notify them to do so in writing or notify them that you refuse to pay the debt.
There are many restrictions of abusive and harassing practices in the FDCPA also. Debt collectors are prohibited from using the threat of violence or other criminal means to cause harm to the consumer.
The use of obscene language is not allowed along with the publication of information that the consumer allegedly owes a debt.
Debt collectors cannot cause a consumer's phone to ring repetitively with the intent to annoy or harass any person. And they have to clearly identify themselves on every phone call.
False and misleading representations are also prohibited per the FDCPA. These include the debt collector identifying themselves as an affiliate of the United States government, miss-representing the legal status of a debt, or that they are an attorney if they are not.
Your debt collectors are prohibited from falsely representing that the nonpayment could result in the arrest or imprisonment of the consumer or the seizure of their property or garnishment of their wages unless such action is lawful and the debt collector intends on taking that action.
This means they must have a history of taking these actions in the majority of cases if they are going to threaten to take legal action against you.
Debt collectors are not allowed to communicate to any person credit information which is known to be untrue, misleading, or in dispute. They also cannot falsely issue you any documentation representing itself as coming from the courts.
They also are prohibited from using false representation or deceptive means to attempt to collect a debt. They must identify themselves to the consumer as a debt collector and that the nature of the call is for that purpose of collecting on a debt.
Debt collectors are NOT directly affiliated with the credit reporting agencies, nor can they claim that they are per the FDCPA.
They cannot accept post dated checks of more than 5 days, or attempt to collect more than what is owed due to the original contract.
They must also send a statement to each consumer within 5 days of contacting the consumer. This letter must contain many things including the amount of the debt, creditor's name, and many disclosures specific to FTC language.
Any violations within this act will be very costly to the debt collector, especially in the civil and class action aspects. Fines in some cases exceed $500,000.
To learn more about consumer credit laws and how they can help you challenge your creditors and win visit www.PerfectCreditFast.com.
Author Resource:
About the author: Ty Crandall is an well known authority and expert on credit scoring and credit law. He has over 12 years experience in the financial and credit fields and is currently the CEO of Elite Credit Incorporated. To download more of Ty?s invaluable credit tips and for more information on credit scoring and credit repair for loan approval, please visit www.PerfectCreditFast.com.
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