Debt Free

First of all, the act is actually entitled the “Fair Debt Collection Practices Act”. It was enacted by congress due to, appropriately enough, the prevalence of unscrupulous and heavy handed debt collection practices. If enough people get up in arms about something, they actually complain to their legislators about it. If they get enough complaints, your friendly congressional member will seek to avoid the dramatic loss of votes that could happen in the next election cycle if a large portion of their constituency is good and pissed off about something. Viola! The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which gives the creditor very specific rights. Perhaps they need to pass the “Junk Mail and Credit Card Offer Avoidance Act” in the next session. Now that would be something.

Here are some of the ways that this act can help you when dealing with creditors. According to the act a creditor may not do the following when attempting to collect a debt:

1- Use or threaten violence. While it may be obvious that using leg breaking tactics to collect a debt would be illegal on many counts, some of the more dubious debt collectors used to threaten or imply this type of fate for difficult creditors. If this happens report them at once to your local police and the FTC.

2 – A debt collector may not use obscene or profane language when communicating with you in any way, including speech, or any written communication. Once again, this is prohibited and if the jerk on the other end of the phone starts cussing at you, no matter how far your debt is past due, they are breaking the law.

3 – Harassing you with repeated phone calls. The act even views “causing the phone to ring” as a phone call, so the collector may not call your house at 3:00am and hang up or engage in any other such shenanigans. A debt collector may not call you“repeatedly or continuously with intent to annoy, abuse, or harass any person at the called number. “ although at times, it may certainly seem that they are doing that. Remember that if you are receiving debt collection calls from debt collectors for different debts, and from different collection agencies, that does not apply.

4 – If a collector is calling someone besides the debtor in order to collect a debt, they are severely restricted in what they can and can't do. They can call a 3rd party in an attempt to get your address or telephone number, but they cannot reveal to a 3rd party that they cannot state that you owe any debt, or use any language on the envelope of written communication that may reveal that they are in the debt collection business. They cannot communicate with a 3rd party more than once, unless that person specifically requests that they do so, or they legitimately think that person is lying to them or withholding information. Also, post cards are a no-no. If anyone gets a post card from a debt collection agency, send one of your own to the FTC.

5- If the debt collection has been informed that you are represented by an attorney in the debt collection matter, they must communicate only through your attorney. They cannot call you again after they have this knowledge. Again, if you get a phone call from the collector after you've informed them they should speak to your lawyer in the matter, drop a line to the FTC. The only way they can speak to you again is if your attorney ignores their attempts at contact. For $200 an hour, you'd hope they can answer the collection agency's communications.

6 – Unlike the police during the interrogation of a suspect, a debt collector cannot lie to you or misrepresent themselves in any material way. They can't say or do any of the following:

a. Say or imply they are with the government or affiliated with any government agency

b. Say or imply that you'll go to jail for nonpayment of any debt. Debtor's prisons don't exist in 21st century America. If, however, you fraudulently obtained a credit card or any other financing, you are in violation of the law, and can be imprisoned for fraud, but not the actual debt itself.

c. Say they are an attorney, when in fact, they are not.

d. Lie about the debt or how much you actually owe.

e. Indicate or imply that you have committed a crime regarding the debt you owe.

f. They cannot threaten any action, such as wage garnishment, unless they actually expect to take such action. Making empty threats in order to collect a debt is a violation of the act.

g. Send fake court documents making any claims regarding the debt. This seems so logical, you wonder why the government even had to include it.

h. Not disclose that they are attempting to collect a debt and any information they receive will be used for that purpose. They have to state this in their first communication with you, weather it is written or oral.

i. Using a business name other that the true name of the collection agency that they work for.

You can download the full text of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act here. 

If anyone is using any of these tactics in order to collect a debt from you, they are violating the law. This is true weather or not you are the biggest deadbeat this side of the Mississippi. It doesn't matter how large or small the debt is, or how long you have owed the creditor money. There is certain conduct and certain actions that are prohibited under this act. If a collection agency is trying this on you, politely inform them that you know about the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and that they are in violation of it's statutes. That will usually make them clam up. Stay Debt Free