How to Recognize Abusive Debt Collection Practices

Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), consumers are provided with a list of debt collector’s practices to identify the abusive practices and ways to dealing with debt collection. The following guidelines are just some of the most important ones that are really worth taking a close look at:

1.) The debt collector can only contact you between 8Am and  9Pm in your time zone.

2.) The debt collector are not allowed to contact you at work should you notify them in writing that your work place disallows you to receive such communication.

3.) The debt collector must abide by your official written request and stop the particular communication with you. Once they receive your request, the only communication they can communicate with you is to tell you that they are no longer communicate with you with their collection efforts or that they are going to look for a particular legal path against you.

4.) The debt collector cannot harass you or threaten you by using violence, offensive language, publish a list of debtors who allegedly refuse to pay their debts, call your phone all day long and try to keep you in phone conversation repeatedly with intention to abuse or harass you.

5.) The debt collector is not allowed to call you without identifying themselves or using a fake company name or personal name.

6.) The debt collector cannot threaten you into paying off debt by entailing that you have committed or will commit a crime.

7.) The debt collector cannot get in touch with you by sending you a postcard and they are not permitted to include anything on the envelope with letters or languages that indicate they are debt collectors.

8.) The debt collectors are not allowed to tell you that they are hired by a credit bureau or a consumer reporting agency while they are not.

Dealing with Debt Collection

According to the FDCPA, for a debtor or a consumer to file a lawsuit or a complaint against a debt collection agency, a proper documentation regarding the debt collector’s abusive practice is a must. Keep in mind, the only real defense for a debt collection agency’s abusive behavior is being able to provide evidence that they break the law.

In case that you are not familiar with FDCPA or you simply just don’t want the trouble of dealing with this kind of lawsuit, you can file a complaint with your State Attorney General or the FTC about these debt collection practices. Do make sure in your complaint that you provide a thorough report concerning the abusive behavior.

As you can see when it comes to dealing with debt collection, it really requires you to know 2 very simply things: get yourself familiar with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and put everything in writing. Keep these 2 things in mind; at least you won’t be so scared when next time you have to handle these annoying debt collector’s calls.