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| Your Credit Rights under the The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act |
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| Written by Ty Crandall |
| Tuesday, 10 November 2009 09:16 |
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Most consumers have their rights violated by collectors commonly without even knowing it. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is designed to permanently stop harassing, unethical, 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. 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 or strong arm you into paying. They cannot identify themselves as a debt collector to your employer, and they cannot send things in the mail to identity they are a debt collector with the intent of embarrassing or causing other 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 stop all contact with you if you tell them that you are represented by and attorney, or if you notify them to cease contact in writing or notify them that you refuse to pay the debt. There are many restrictions to stop abusive and harassing practices in the FDCPA also. Debt collectors are prohibited from using threats of violence or other criminal means to cause harm to the consumer in an attempt to collect on the debt. The use of obscene language is prohibited along with the publication of information that the consumer allegedly owes the debt. Debt collectors cannot cause a consumer's phone to ring repetitively with the intent to annoy or harass any person; this includes the constant use of auto dialers. And they have to clearly identify themselves on every phone call they make to you. False and misleading representations are also prohibited per the FDCPA law. These include the debt collector identifying themselves as an affiliate of the United States government when they have no such affiliation, miss-representing the legal status of a debt, or say that they are an attorney when they truly are not. Your debt collectors cannot falsely represent 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. Creditors must have a long standing history of taking these actions in the majority of cases if they are going to make threats of legal action against you. Debt collectors are not allowed to communicate credit information which is known to be untrue or in dispute to any person. They also cannot falsely issue you documentation representing itself as coming from the courts or other legal authorities. 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, and they cannot 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 written statement to each consumer within 5 days of contacting the consumer. This letter must contain the amount of the original 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 every time visit www.PerfectCreditFast.com. About the Author: The author: Ty Crandall is an well known authoritative expert on credit scoring and credit law. He has over 12 years experience in the financial and credit sectors 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. Kindly provided by LJ-Marketing.dk You are welcome to use this article on your own website, if you include the link just before this text. |
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