Rights with Debt Collectors

dont allow yourself to become a victim.....
Many times our your first contact with a collection agency will be over the phone at home or work. How you handle these interactions will determine how a collection agency will contact you in the future and help restore your piece of mind.

1. Do not talk to them on the phone, unless you are adept with dealing with them. There is nothing that says you have to talk to them. It is your phone you can choose who to talk to. Be polite but firm and tell them it is an inconvenient time for you to talk and hang up. If they call you back immediately it is harassment.


2. They are not allowed to call you at work if you tell them not to. This does not have to be in writing. All you have to do is tell them you are not allowed to receive these types of calls at work and they must stop.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to the Rescue
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) makes collection agency harassment illegal and them calling you after you tell them not to at home or work is harassment.

Here is what the FDCPA says about it:

§ 806. Harassment or abuse [15 USC 1692d]

A debt collector may not engage in any conduct the natural consequence of which is to harass, oppress, or abuse any person in connection with the collection of a debt. Without limiting the general application of the foregoing, the following conduct is a violation of this section:

(5) Causing a telephone to ring or engaging any person in telephone conversation repeatedly or continuously with intent to annoy, abuse, or harass any person at the called number.

and

§ 805. Communication in connection with debt collection [15 USC 1692c]

(a) COMMUNICATION WITH THE CONSUMER GENERALLY. Without the prior consent of the consumer given directly to the debt collector or the express permission of a court of competent jurisdiction, a debt collector may not communicate with a consumer in connection with the collection of any debt -

(1) at any unusual time or place or a time or place known or which should be known to be inconvenient to the consumer. In the absence of knowledge of circumstances to the contrary, a debt collector shall assume that the convenient time for communicating with a consumer is after 8 o'clock antimeridian and before 9 o'clock postmeridian, local time at the consumer's location;
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Who is to tell you when it is convenient to receive phone calls. It is never convenient to receive a call for a collection agency and you can tell them that. Simply say it inconvenient to talk on the phone. You will call them back when it is more convenient and hang up.
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(2) if the debt collector knows the consumer is represented by an attorney with respect to such debt and has knowledge of, or can readily ascertain, such attorney's name and address, unless the attorney fails to respond within a reasonable period of time to a communication from the debt collector or unless the attorney consents to direct communication with the consumer; or

(3) at the consumer's place of employment if the debt collector knows or has reason to know that the consumer's employer prohibits the consumer from receiving such communication.
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Receiving calls while you are working is both inconvenient and against the rules at most employers tell them you are not allowed to receive call at work and hang up.


One of the shadiest tricks that collection agencies will try to employ is to contact your neighbors, friends and family to get messages to you.

This is a violation of the FDCPA for them to contact anyone if they know how to reach you. It is also a violation of the FDCPA if they don't know how to get in contact with you if they tell the people they contact they are from a collection agency.

Watch this short video it will show you for the most part collection agencies do not wish to play by the rules. They know what it takes to get people unaware of their rights to pay up. See how they blantantly don't mind breaking the law.