Many consumers have their legal rights violated by collectors without even knowing it. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is designed to stop harassing, unfair, and abusive debt collection practices.

Knowing the details of this act will help you fight against abusive collection practices and stop collection companies from violating your legal rights.

There are many requirements debt collectors must abide by per the FDCPA law.

Debt collectors are not allowed to tell others details about the consumer including that they owe a debt, they cannot communicate with anyone other than the consumer more than once, not communicate through post card or have ANY markings on the outside of their envelope indicating they might be a debt collector.

Simply put, collection companies cannot use the fact that they are a debt collector to attempt to strong arm you into paying the debt.

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 can’t call a consumer at an unusual time or place. This includes before 8 a.m. and after 9 p.m. A debt collector should not contact a consumer at their place of employment if they have reason to believe this is prohibited or looked at negatively by the employer.

They are also required to immediately cease all contact with you if you claim to be represented by and attorney, or if you notify them that you refuse to pay the debt.

There are many prohibited abusive and harassing practices in the FDCPA also. Debt collectors are not allowed to use the threat of violence or other criminal means to cause harm to the consumer.

The use of obscene language is not allowed along with the publication of information that the consumer allegedly owes a debt.

Debt collectors cannot cause a consumer’s phone to ring repetitively with the intent to annoy or harass any person; this includes the unethical use of auto dialers. And they have to clearly identify themselves on every phone call as a collection company or debt collector.

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 wages unless such action is lawful and the debt collector intends on taking that action.

This means they must have a history of taking these actions in the majority of cases if they are going to threaten to take legal action against you.

Debt collectors are not allowed to communicate to any person credit information which is known to be untrue, misleading, or in dispute. They also cannot falsely issue you any documentation representing itself as coming from the courts.

They also are prohibited from using any deceptive means to collect a debt. They must identify themselves to the consumer as a debt collector/collection agent and that the nature of the call is for the purpose of collecting a debt.

Debt collectors are NOT directly affiliated with the credit reporting agencies, nor can they 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 and all violations within this act can be costly to the debt collector, especially in the civil and class action aspects.

To learn more about consumer credit laws and how they can help you challenge your creditors and remove your negative credit items visit www.PerfectCreditFast.com.

About 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.

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