Handling collection agencies are a major hurdle against your goal towards debt reduction. They harass you a lot over collection of debt. However, there are ways in which you can easily manage the collection harassment. Now, in order to do that, it is important for you to know the rule set by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act or FDCPA. It is a set of law found by FDCPA under the Consumer Credit Protection Act, 15 USC 1692.
FDCPA prohibitions
Some of the prohibitions set by the Fair Debt Collection Practice Act on debt collections are:
- FDCPA prohibits the debt collectors from contacting a third party who doesn’t owe money to the collection agency. Third party can include your employer, your relatives or your neighbors. However, in case of a co-applicant, collectors can contact that person for the dues.
- FDCPA prohibits the debt collectors from:
• Ruining your credit rating
• Referring your account to an Attorney
• Garnishing your bank accounts or repossing
• Extracting money by threatening you
- FDCPA prohibits the debt collectors from calling you at odd hours. A debt collector can call you only between 8.00AM to 9.00 PM.
- Debt collectors are not supposed to inform your employer about the purpose of the call. If asked not to call you at your workplace, they are supposed to abide by that.
- They cannot use abusive languages for collection purposes.
- Debt collectors cannot charge interest rates and fees not agreed to in the original contract.
- They cannot file a lawsuit against you in a court located far away from your place of residence.
- FDCPA also prohibits the debt collectors from making any false claims that he is representing an Attorney. The collection agencies cannot even use any stationery that appears to be coming from the government or appears to be an official court communication. They cannot even send you letters that appear to come from the court.
- The FDCPA also states that debt collectors cannot collect personal information about you, the debtor; claiming to be an official conducting some kind of survey.
- The collection agencies cannot threaten you because of your failure to pay the debt.
Other than this, you can also send a debt validation letter through certified mail, requesting a return receipt (CMRRR) to the collection agency in order to find out whether a particular debt is at all valid. If the collection agency fails to validate the debt, it can be disputed off your credit report.
