Debt Collection Laws
Debt Collection Laws vary from State to State and it makes sense to familiarize yourself with the ones relevant to your personal circumstances. Not all laws cover every type of debt for example certain debts incurred via running a business would not have the same level of protection. All States are bound by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) as this is Federal Law but each State often has their own interpretation of the meaning of certain parts of the Act. For this reason, you are always best dealing with credit experts in your local area rather than a national company.
When you are struggling to make payments on your loans and credit cards, you may find yourself becoming tempted by one of the numerous ads you will see for credit specialists who can write off up to 90% of your debt. They claim to use various debt collection laws to do this. But in reality many of these firms will charge you an up front fee and when you have paid it, will disappear into the sunset leaving you with the original debts you had and now out of pocket for their fee as well. We have all gone into a panic when we received a debt collection letter. The good news is that there are plenty of charities who will help you to get a handle on your debt and teach you how to deal with the collection services and debt collector.
But that being said there are some parts of the debt collection laws that you should make yourself aware of particularly if you are being hassled by a debt collection lawyer or agency. There are debt collection harassment laws that are there to protect consumers and ensure that financial institutions operate fair debt collections procedures. These allow you to tell the agencies to stop contacting you and they also prevent the debt collectors from doing certain things. For example you shouldn’t be contacted before 8am or after 9pm unless you have agreed to calls outside these times. And if you are not allowed personal calls at work, the collection agency must respect this and cannot hassle you by phoning your place of employment.
The debt collection laws also lay down rules of privacy for example the debt collection agencies or their officials cannot discuss your debts with your employer or your spouse. They can consult your attorney if you have engaged a debt collection attorney to represent you. The only time they may contact other people is to obtain your phone number or address and even then they can only contact that person once. So they cannot hassle your relatives. They must act in a professional courteous manner i.e. no swearing or abusive language and they cannot threaten to harm you or your family. They also have to be very careful not to make any false statements or engage in unfair practices as laid down by the Law.
The debt collection laws also stipulate how payments can be allocated to debts i.e. you and not the debt collector have control over this. These laws also dictate what type of benefits are subject to a garnishment order and which are exempt. It does pay to become familiar with the laws but although they are there to protect you they do not excuse you from repaying the money you owe.
