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 It’s a situation that everyone dreads. You’ve lost your job, or been ill or in an accident. Whatever the reason, you fell behind on some bills. Now you have a credit agency calling the house constantly. They’ve called you early in the morning and late at night.
You’ve been called a deadbeat and a loser by creditors, and you’ve been threatened with calls to your place of employment and your landlord. It’s become such an issue that you dread answering the telephone.
It’s no wonder that creditors have a reputation as among the worst bullies in the business world. If you’re being harassed by a creditor or debt collection agency, there are things you should know about your legal rights and obligations. No one deserves to be intimidated or bullied into paying a debt.
Facts About Creditor Bullying The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act gives the consumer certain rights when they are being pursued by a creditor or credit collection agency. These rights include:
A debt collector may not contact you by telephone before 8 AM or after 9 PM He may not call you at work if he knows your boss does not allow such calls. He must call your attorney instead of you if you have informed him that you have an attorney. He may not misrepresent who he is. For example, he cannot claim to be a government official when he is not. He may not tell you that documents he sends you are not legal documents if they are. He may not send you documents that look like legal documents but aren’t. Depending on the state in which you live, he may be restricted to contacting you no more than once a month. A collection agency or creditor CAN sue you to recover money owed. They can not threaten to sue you if they have no intention of doing so. They can not threaten to sell your property or garnish your wages if it is not legal for them to do so. They can not threaten you with arrest. They may not threaten you with violence. The creditor must tell you who they are and the name of the agency they are calling for. They must provide you with information regarding your debt, including the name of the original creditor and the full amount of the debt. They must tell you how to dispute the debt if it’s not true.
Your Privacy Rights One of the most embarrassing things about owing money to a creditor is having friends and family find out about it. Creditors and credit collection agencies are required by the FDCPA to take all reasonable precautions to protect your privacy. There should be nothing on the outside of the envelope of a mailed notice to indicate that it is an attempt to collect a debt. They may not contact friends or family if they have contact information for you. When contacting your family or neighbors to find out an address or contact phone for you, the creditor may not discuss your business with them. Specifically, he may not distribute a list of debtors to other companies leave messages with a third party stating that that the purpose of the call is to collect an owed debt discuss your bill with anyone but you, the original creditor or an attorney
Tips For Dealing With Bullying Creditors
It’s easy to be intimidated by an overzealous debt collector. Because most debt collection agencies make their money on a percentage of the debts that they collect, many will resort to bullying, threatening and generally unpleasant behavior. There are ways to stop the harassment so that you can answer your phone again without fear.
Your first step in dealing with a creditor is to try to make payment arrangements. It’s much easier to work with a creditor before they’ve handed the account over for collection to an agency. Explain the situation, and offer a payment plan that you can keep. Start a file from the very first contact, and make sure that every single contact is added to it. This includes letters that the agency or creditor sends to you, letters that you send to the company and records of all phone calls. Your file will serve as a record if you ever decide to take the company to court. If your account has already been referred for collection, and you are receiving harassing phone calls or mails, first know your rights. You have the right to dispute a bill or a portion of the bill. While that portion of the bill is in dispute, the creditor must stop attempts to collect it. You can request that a creditor stop all contact with you. The request must be made in writing of a credit collection agency. If you are dealing with the original creditor, you can attempt to reach a resolution by offering a payment plan that you can afford. Most creditors will accept a payment plan because they’d rather get their money back than hire a lawyer and split any proceeds of a lawsuit with him. When writing to a creditor, be aware that any information they receive will be used in an attempt to collect a debt. Do not make promises you can’t keep. If bullying continues, you may file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission detailing any time that you were called outside the permitted hours, were subjected to abusive language or threats. If the harassment is severe, you can file suit or threaten to bring a suit against the agency for unfair collection practices.
How to Write a Cease Contact Letter A cease contact letter is a letter in which you tell a credit collection agency to cease all attempts at trying to contact you. This will not stop actions to collect the debt. It will, however, stop the bullying by phone or mail. The cease contact letter may only be sent to a collection agency. The original creditor has the right to pursue your debt as long as they do not harass you themselves, but many will not, out of fear that you will bring suit against them for harassment.
In the cease contact letter, be sure to note the file ID# of your case, an explanation of your situation, and the details of any abuse or deceptive tactics that have been used to try to pressure you into paying.
Clearly state what contact should cease. For example, cease all contact with me and my family regarding this debt. If you must contact me, you may do so through my attorney.
Send the letter via certified mail, return receipt requested.
How To Dispute a Claim If a credit agency is attempting to collect a debt that you believe is in error, you have a right to dispute the debt. The dispute should be filed by certified letter, return receipt requested. It should include the case file number the reason for the dispute an instruction to cease collection of the debt until it is proven copies of any letters, receipts or other proof that support your claim that the debt is in error Instruction that the agency should not make a report to a credit reporting agency while the debt is being disputed A cease contact clause firmly requesting that all contact and attempts to collect the debt cease until the investigation is complete A statement that the agency may not contact anyone but your creditor regarding this bill. Your signature, and details of how you may be contacted with the results of the investigation
How to File A Complaint Letter Gather all your materials from your file. Arrange your materials in chronological order so that it’s easy to follow it. Cite your state’s fair collection practices laws to show that you know it. Detail the prohibited practices that the credit agency engaged in. Request an investigation of the company and its debt collection practices. Send the letter via certified mail, return receipt requested.
Case Study: Marlene, 32 and Long Island Collections On October 10, Marlene received a telephone call from a woman who told her that she was calling from the telephone company to try to help her avoid seriously damaging her credit. The woman told Marlene that she was authorized for today only to accept payment of half her outstanding balance on her discontinued account as full settlement of the bill. The total amount is $1,500 but she can settle the debt right now for $750 by credit card.
Marlene tells her that she doesn’t know of any debt, and asks for details of the debt to be sent to her. When the letter arrives, she finds out that the woman was not from the phone company at all, but from a collection agency. Not only that, the bill is for a phone number that has never belonged to her. In the meantime, the collection agency has called her twice more to try to pressure her into settling the bill immediately. In one call, the woman, who only gave the name “Mrs. Gray” told Marlene that if she didn’t pay within five days, she would be reported to a credit reporting agency and it would destroy her credit.
Marlene writes a letter to dispute the bill, sending it to the collection agency by registered mail. In it, she instructs the agency to make no further contact with her or any third party regarding this bill until they have received proof from the telephone company that the bill is legitimate.
Three weeks later, she receives a letter from the collection agency informing her that the telephone company had investigated and discovered that the $1,500 had been mistakenly billed to the wrong name, and the bill was completely resolved. Just to sure, Marlene took advantage of her right to receive a copy of her credit report for free and checked to make sure that the bill did not appear on it. It had never been reported, and the incident was resolved.
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Bully Solutions
