Everyone makes mistakes now and then. If your credit card mistakes have come back to haunt you in the form of phone calls from creditors at all hours, you need to know that you have certain rights in regards to debt collectors.
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act of 1977 lays out guidelines for when and where creditors may contact you, who they may discuss your debt with, and what they may say and do. Specifically:
Rules of Contacting You.
A creditor may contact you in person, by phone, by telegram, by fax or by mail. They may not contact you at inconvenient times – for example before 8 AM your time, or after 9 PM your time. They also may not contact you at work if you inform them that your employer doesn’t like such contact at work.
A debt collector may not harass you (or any third party they contact in reference to you) in any of the following ways:
- Threatening violence or harm
- Using abusive or profane language
- Repeatedly use the telephone to annoy and harass you.
A debt collector may not use false or misleading statements in an attempt to collect a debt.. They may not:
- Use a false name
- Claim to be from a government agency
- Falsely claim to be an attorney
- Falsely imply that you have committed a crime
- Give false credit information about you to anyone
- Tell you that you owe more than you do
- Send you an official looking document purporting to be, for instance, a court ordered settlement
Debt collectors can not state that:
- They will seize or garnish or otherwise attach your wages unless they may legally do so and intend to do so.
- That they will bring a lawsuit against you unless they are legally entitled to do so and intend to do so.
- That you will be arrested because of your debt
A debt collector may only contact third parties about you to learn where you live, what your telephone number is and where you work. They may only contact a person that you know for that information once.
If you have an attorney, and refer a debt collector to the attorney, they must contact the attorney in regards to the debt rather than you. In general, they may not disclose anything about your debt obligations to any third party other than your lawyer, and in some states, your spouse.
Within five days of contacting you, a debt collector must tell you in writing how much you owe, the name of the creditor to whom you owe the money and what you should do if you believe the bill is a mistake.
If you contact the collection agency in writing telling them that you do not owe the money they must cease all collection activity until you are provided with proof that you owe the bill.
