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Archive for the ‘Debt Collectors’ Category

You have an obligation to repay your debts, even if you have fallen on hard times.

However, you don’t have an obligation to be harassed, to be threatened, to be treated badly.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act offers protection to consumers who have borrowed money.

This does not mean that you can, or should, borrow money with the intention not to repay.

However, let’s say that because of illness, or job loss, or a mortgage loan resetting, you have fallen behind in paying your bills.

Debt collectors are not allowed to:

Call you before 8 a.m.
Tell people that you owe money
Threaten to have you arrested
Threaten you in any way
Call you at work if your employer does not approve of their calls to you at work

When debt collectors contact you, to protect yourself:

Do NOT tell them where you work if they don’t know
Don’t give them bank information
Don’t pay them over the phone
Find out their information and do research to make sure they are a legitimate collection agency

Ask them to send you documentation which proves that you owe the debt that they claim that you owe, and also to provide a complete account history of this debt.

Do not acknowledge that you owe the debt; tell them you want to see proof of their claims.

If you do owe the debt, find out what kind of payment arrangements you can make with the collection agency, and stick to those payments. Don’t promise to make payments and then go back on it. This just makes things worse for you.