SolveYourProblem.com Article Series: Debt Relief & Debt Consolidation
I Want To Get Rid Of My Debt...NOW!

Debt Collector Harassment: How To Resolve This Problem
   

Having collectors harass you can be embarrassing and humiliating, especially if they attempt to contact you at your workplace. Sometimes, it can be worse than this, with threats of violence and jail. Recently, a lot of people have also complained about unauthorized withdrawals from their bank accounts. These are some pretty heavy-handed techniques and can be considered abusive. It's not that collection agencies don't have the right to call you to attempt to collect a valid debt that is owed on your part. However, this does not free them to use some of these techniques in doing so. It also does not free them from treating in you in the proper and fair matter you deserve.

There is a law called the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act that helps protect you and your rights, regarding unethical, illegal and unfair debt collection practices, including attorney's who commonly collect debts. Bill collectors and collection attorney's should be fully aware of this act and the rules regarding how they are allowed to collect debts from you. Unfortunately too many of them get away with it, because a lot of people are unaware of the act, it's hard to prove a lot of the harassment and a lot of the collectors are not properly trained and there is such a high turnover rate in this industry.

The first thing you need to do to avoid being taken advantage of by bill collectors or avoid taking the harassment you shouldn't have to, is to know exactly what they are not allowed to do. This can help you confront a harassing collector, when they begin to harass you, therefore possibly stopping the harassment in its tracks. The practices that are not allowed include, threatening violence or criminal acts or anything that may harm you, using obscene or profane language, advertising your debt for sale, calling you over and over again with the express purpose of harassing or annoying you and not revealing to you who they are on purpose.

In addition, you should also know that they are not allowed to falsely claim that they are working for a debt collector if they are not, give you false information about who they are, such as their name and the amount of the debt you owe. They can also not give you false information on the fact that an attorney is involved if they are not, they cannot say they are a government official if they are not, they cannot threaten to seize or garnish your property if that is not legal, they cannot send you falsified documents, or say that documents are legal if they are not. A few other things they cannot do, includes saying you have committed a crime or broke the law if you have not or saying that they are going to tell false credit information to someone else, or actually doing so. Knowing this can help you in stopping harassment, because the first step knows what constitutes harassment.

While dealing with harassment at the same time as trying to decide if you should consolidate or not can be stressful. If you know your rights according in regards to being harassed you will be better able to deal with the creditors who abuse these rights and possibly head them off. This in the long run can give you more time to resolve the debts in a civilized manner and perhaps take advantage of consolidation and stop the creditors from harassing you in the first place.

As you can see there are many out there who would take advantage of trying to collect a debt from you and take advantage of you not knowing your rights in regards to this. Being aware of the Fair Debt Collections Act can really be a good idea for you, if you are in this situation. You must also make sure the person who is harassing you is aware of the act as well. If they are not and continue to harass you, you should make every effort to contact their supervisor and bring up the act and the violation of the act that you have experienced. Being fully aware of your rights in this manner can save you a ton of grief when dealing with harassment from debt collectors and free you up to properly research how you can get rid of your debt completely, either by consolidation or otherwise, and be rid of the collectors too, good luck!

Click here if you are drowning in credit card debt, facing foreclosure, being harassed my debt collectors or simply feel like a victim of this economic crisis. It's my SolveYourProblem recommendation.

# # # # #

by SolveYourProblem.com : 2007

> Home > Debt Free Articles: Main Page