As consumers find themselves in financial trouble, they could turn out to be the targets of abusive telephone contacts by persistent debt collectors. Most of these collectors frequently engage in other unethical strategies which are illegal. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) was approved in 1978 to shield consumers from harassing conduct by collectors.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is required to enforce the FDCPA, but it is relaxed in its enforcement duties. Fortunately, when the FTC refuses to undertake its obligations, there are conditions among the FDCPA that permit private enforcement.
What Actions Are Banned because of the FDCPA?
The FDCPA forbids debt collectors from using illegal collection methods to collect consumer debts. This national statute declares that bill collectors are not allowed to:
- Phone consumers before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. home time
- Contact when a consumer has asked that a collector end all contacts
- Deceive consumers about the actual amount due on their balance
- Use threatening or obscene speech, such as racial slurs
- Threaten consumers with getting imprisoned and/or put in jail
- Pretend to be somebody else under the guise of obtaining personal data
- Advise someone about a consumer's loan, for example a boss, friend, neighbor, or other person without a need to know
- Disregard a documented request to validate the consumer debt or to stop all communication attempts
- Threaten to wreck credit reports if there is no reporting or no intent to report
- Communicate bogus claims that the debt collector is an agent of a law firm or officials
- Threaten to force paychecks seized or home taken away in the event that, actually, that threat may not be accomplished or the threat is not to be intended
Allegations need to be lodged through the FTC even though it is not going to respond to precise incidents registered. The FTC does, nevertheless, acquire stats concerning patterns to help it to figure out exactly where to allocate man power. Claims can also be registered with the state's consumer protection bureau and the appropriate consumer agency. These, too, cannot act on certain claims, but they do permit data to assist investigations.
How Do Collectors Break the FDCPA?
The most typical offenses that debt collection agencies employ contrary to consumers are the:
- Attempted communication with a consumer soon after writing a dispute letter
- Billing interest and extra fees where the consumer will not agree to pay in an first credit agreement
- Frequently calling the person past times or any time the debt collection agency has learned is undesirable to the consumer
- Phoning the consumer at an employer's telephone number after being advised that the business will not enable such messages
- Threatening to cause consumers to be arrested
- Pretending like the debt collector is from the sweepstakes, hospital or some other entity to acquire individual data via the consumer or other person
- Indicating or threatening to tell friends, family members, bosses, or other persons about the loans
- Declining to describe the balance as disputed to the creditor bureaus right after the consumer has sent a correction letter
- Contacting the debtor after a bankruptcy petition was filed
A lot of states force deadlines where a debt could be settled in court. If the collector will not file an action inside of that period of time, the bill collector will give up the right to sue. This standard is known as the statute of limitations and it changes by state laws. Once the time bar has expired, a debt collector cannot file an action about the arrears; however, it could endeavor to collect if the collector does not make use of judicial tactics.
Consumer Rights Attorneys Can Uphold the FDCPA
Consumers which have fallen behind on their repayments are shielded from being exposed to collection abuse. Consumers possess a right to be handled justly through the experience of consumer debt collection. Yet, collection agencies that disobey the FDCPA can be penalized to a maximum of $1,000 in a successful consumer litigation. This particular consequence is generally known as "statutory damages" and will ordinarily belong to the consumer. Statutory damages are intended to act as a deterrent against banned debt collection. There are many other remedies provided by the FDCPA like the payment of attorney's fees and expenses of litigation. These are created to permit consumers to retain experienced attorneys to accept their case without any of the hardship of significant attorney charges and expenses.
For those who have been the recipient of harassing telephone contacts or letters, you should speak to us at this time in order that we may assist by forcing an end to it. We are skilled in the area of fair debt collection practices, and we regularly file FDCPA legal actions against debt collectors alleged to disobey fair debt collection laws. Call us now at 610-616-5303 or visit us at Consumer Litigation Group or email us at Info@ConsumerLitigators.com.
