Is there any means that can protect me from harassment?

Hello Frankie.

Welcome to the debt consolidation care forum. We understand the turmoil you are undergoing. Firstly, we would suggest you to start of with debt consolidation. In debt consolidation, your debts will be eliminated and consolidated into one single amount. You can pay your debts in easy installments and get debt free within a short span of time.

It is true that you are responsible to pay your debts and the creditors have the right to contact you. However, by no means can a creditor or a collection agency harass you or disturb you. According to the Fair Debt Practices Act:

- debt collectors may not harass, intimidate, threaten, or embarrass you.

- Debt collectors may not make false or misleading statements, such as falsely associating themselves with a government office or credit bureau.

- A debt collector may only contact a person between the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. Debt collectors may not contact the consumer at his job if the debt collector is aware that the employer prohibits personal calls.

- A person may notify a debt collector in writing if he or she does not want any further contact with the collector. Once this notice has been received, the debt collector must stop all communications, except to notify the person that a specific action will be taken.

- A debt collector can discuss your debt only with your attorney, a credit bureau, the creditor, and the creditor's lawyer. However, the debt collector can contact other people to find out where the debtor lives or works.

So don't worry but take experts help to get rid of debts.

If you inform a debt collector that they may not contact you anymore, the debt collector has only two options, sue you for the debt, or send the debt back to the original creditor.

A much better idea is to send the debt collector a letter stating that all future contact must be USPS only. this avoids the problem of forcing the debt collector into suing you, plus they must abide by what you said, they may not call you anymore they may only send you letters. if they do call you it is a violation of the fair debt collections practices act, which you may sue them for.

can you do something in stopping all the phone calls by the collection agencies ? I felt humiliated and unable to sleep sometimes. After coming to this website, I now feel much relieved.

A federal Act often known as the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (referred as "fdcpa") gives the consumer a specific legal right to sue or take legal action against debt collectors who sometimes unlawfully threaten, berate, intimidate or harass you.

Even calling you during odd hours, or making false statements about the the debt can also be challenged under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Quote:

The fdcpa states:

Quote:

:( can a agencey tell you that they will take your house, property from you because you owe a debt. Oh! bythe way the debt amount is 379.00 dollars. I was trying to work with them on this debt to let them knowwhat I can pay at the time until the debtis paid, he said if it not his way it's the highway for me what did he mean about that. do they have right to threat me like that.He ask me did i have a checking account i told him don't have which believe me, so he got very angry about why i didn't have a checking account which honestly i don't have one. He ask me did i have any relative that have a checking account that i can use i told him no, but he insist that he was not going to take it no other way. he said that he's not going to take it by money order.he said if it's not his way it's the highway for me. Have i been
voilated.If knew about fdcpa my blood pressure wouldn't 190/130 which could have had a stroke.

i get phone calls from monday-sunday this very depressing to agency calling you 7days out of the week. and just calling and not asking for a person name but instead they reading out a 800 number or a reference number with no name.

:D Hello. I post at this site from time to time and am very grateful for finding it. I have had a small victory today and thought I would share. This agency, identifying themselves only as "Law Office" or "Metro Associates" had been calling my family harrasing them about a bill from 2002. They would not tell who they represented, or what kind of debt, only that litigation would follow if they did not receive payment. My sister was getting fed up, and gave me the 800 number. So, following advice that I have received from this site and using the information I've gleaned, I called them. First, they were not able to validate the "debt" owed, could not give me accurate information, and kept asking me for my social security number. One representative was even rude and yelled at me stating that "the calls would not stop until they got the money from me" and hung up in my face. After advising them that they can be sued for illegal collection practices, and giving them my attorney's name and number, and giving them a piece of my mind for pulling such an old bill up (Ameritech phone bill, which was paid off long ago, and Ameritech is my current phone service provider) I knew that they bought the name and number from another agency; the representative asked me if I had ever worked in collections. I told him no, but I was well versed in the FCRA and what can and cannot be done when collecting from consumers. THANKS debt consolidation CARE!!!

Hi redeemedsh

Welcome back to the forums.

We are extremely delighted that you handled the collection agent as a completely informed consumer aware of the fdcpa law.

We will continue to serve at the best of your interests and hope to erase all the debt related problems from the world. Without your support, we just can't achieve this victory.

We appreciate your posting and thanks for your regular stay in the forums.

Regards
Roxette

You people need to just quit whining an pay ur damn bills. Seriously if u payed them in the first place u wouldnt have this problem. Is it our fault that you lack the responsabitilty to take care of your debts. I deal with you clowns daily and its always the same old storie...blah...blah...blah...

thats not the point we pay our bills but we all fall on hard times, loss of a job, unexpected car repairs, the point is no one deserves to be harassed and now that we are all informed of the fdcpa laws then we can starting fighting back there is no reason that bill collectors need to be that rude, I sure hope you never fall on hard times scuba steve.

Scuba Steve,

You are the perfect example of why this forum exists. You talk about people paying their bills, if you would take the time to read the posts on this site, we are people that want to pay our bills but are being taken advantage by unethical credit collectors. Credit Card companies can provide easy credit to whoever they want, charge whatever interest they want and then when you cant keep up with even the interest payments stick it to you even further.

Congress just past a new bankruptcy law that just stuck it to the consumer even further because of the lobbying of Banks and Credit Card companies. These companies have very little regulation so consumers need to band together take back what little rights we have.

Credit Bureaus are private companies that make their own rules, devise credit scores their own way, and keep the formula they use to devise these scores as a closely guarded secret. We need to continue to fight for our rights as consumers and this website allows us to do that.

Oh and by the way. Up yours Scuba Steve.

It's obvious that steve is either a bill collector or one who does not read the entire story (not spelled with an "ie" stevo) had you read the entire story, you would see that the bill WAS ALREADY PAID, AND I AM A CURRENT CUSTOMER OF THE SAME PHONE COMPANY THEY SAID I OWED. But it's fine. If you need to vent, then do so, if it makes you feel better. I'm not a slacker by any means, and pay my bills, and stay informed by using helpful sites like these to battle bill colletors and other people that come at me ill-equipped. So I'm fine with it, the problem is solved and I've received no more rude phone calls! Yay for me, and thanks to this website!!

Word!

The point is steve, we have rights and we are no longer willing for companies to toss them out the window to suit their needs. I strongly feel that if we never address this problem, they will only get worse. Sooner or later ( more sooner) our rights fade away. How would you feel if someone violated your rights to free speech?
I take it that you would sit back and shut up, we refused to be you.

I am happy that this forum is providing continuous help to so many of our visitors and getting themselves aware of their consumer rights.

I thank all of your for your regular stay on this board. We look forward to be of more help to the community in many other ways.

I appreciate that the consumers are aware of their past debts but I also believe that there are better ways of collecting the debts.

scuba steve - I am acquainted to some people who are in the field of collections and they also admit that due to some unfair reasons, the relation between the debtor, lender and the collector is always deteriorating each day.

I do not mind paying my debts and to do so, I might consider selling everything at my end but I will not appreciate unethical reasons which will further add to my woes.

Regards
Roxette

annoyed by collection calls? look up cease and desist learn it live it love it. you can request no more calls or mail, then if u still get those calls... LAWSUIT which can result in a resolution of your debt and you pay nothing at the cost of the company good luck...

Hi,
Pls define first party debt collection,third party debt collection,types of debt collection (b2b,b2c),and various funamentals of debt collection.

If you do a cease and desist, what happens to your debt in the mean time.How is it taken care of? I want to take care of my debts, but I just dont have the means right now to do so. I just dont like all the phone calls especially to my place of employment.

a cease and desist letter sent to the collection agency halts all calls and communications of any kind (other than what you specify). If you wish for them to only contact you by mail at your home, you have the right to demand that they do so. It does nothing for the debt, but does stop the harrassment and annoying phone calls especially at your job. You should make arrangements on the debt if it is your intent to pay, but it should be on your terms and something that you are comfortable with. I hope this helps, also do a search in this site for cease and desist, and for letters, and collection practices in general, there is a lot of useful information here.

Thank you for your insight!! I have a few creditors that will work with me, there are just some that are rude and harassing. I found so much info on this site thanks to everyone replying to my posts!!!

Well i am also a debt collector..and im not in extreme debt..but i barely make enough to make ends meet...i do hear stories all the time..and unfortunately some people do lie in order to get away w/ not paying..i can understand hard times..bc we all go thru them...but the select few who lie hurt the people trying to get caught up...its sad but true..like i said.i hear this day in and day out..if your a bill collector you start to lose the ability to feel sympathy for people..mainly the reason im looking to get out of this line of work..

Well good luck to you trying to get out of the work.\I can understand from a debt collector's point of view, but some do get out of hand. Now a days with the cost of living is on the rise it is easy to see why people live paycheck to paycheck and cant afford to repay our creditors. However, that is another reason why a lot of us registered on here to get advice and help on being closer to being debt free.

I ported my wifes cell phone a couple of days early and Verizon is calling me a couple of times a week trying to charge me $187.00. They told me for months that it would be credited, then suddenly I started getting calls from the collection agency. The credit is on their system, but when they switch me to a supervisor, they won't code the credit to take it off..any suggestions?

Bob :P

Hi Bobby

If the creditors are unwilling to update your credit file even after you have paid them, it will cause defamation and financial injury. You have the legal rights to take actions against them under the consumer protection act and recover the extent of damages.

How about if a credit company calls, has somehow gotten your phone number, and harasses you concerning an aquaintence's debt?? They demanded I get ahold of this person, even tho I don't often see or speak to them. They knew my cell number, my name, and when I last talked to this guy!!

Hi Lynn,

According to the fdcpa law, a debt collector can contact a third party to acquire information about a particular person. But this communication is allowed only once and should not be done regularly to the point of harassment.

Please write a letter to the collection agency to stop calling you or you will have to file legal complaints against them at the government bureaus.

Regards
Roxette

I am going through credit card debt problems now. When I got my cards, I paid extra every month to cover me in case I ever lost my job or couldn't pay. Well, I lost my job and am having trouble getting another one. But the companys will not honor the "insurance" I supposedly had on the cards. I am ready to turn my phone off because of them. I explain the situation to them every day, they ask for a check over the phone. I keep telling them that if I do that, it will bounce. I tried debt consolidation, but I can't even afford those payments right now. Up until 3 months ago, I had excellant credit and all my bills were payed in advance. I am so depressed. It really helps to see how much I am not alone in all this.

slover238, are you having problems in paying the monthly payments in the debt consolidation program also? I feel that you should discuss this situation with your consultant and assure him of how much concerned you are to fix your credit file. Get the lowest payment plan in the program so that you can pay it with comfort. In your situation, the main intention is to keep the accounts current and not let it go to any collection agency. Also keep trying for any type of job, (be it part time), at this time since you require some sort of money to keep coming in your house and pay your bills.

Slowly, when your situation improves in the future, you can take full control of it. I hope that the consultant works out a better payment plan that suits to your present needs.

I am being harass for a relative bill. How can I stop this?

Hi Alpo,

Welcome to the forums.

Contacting a third person other than the debtor is allowed as per the fdcpa law, but it should be done only to locate for that person.

If the collection agency is repeatedly contacting and harassing you, please send a cease and desist letter to stop contacting you. They are violating the laws and if they still continue with their actions after receiving your letter, you have the legal rights to sue them.

It will be also helpful in recording all the telephonic conversations and inform them that you wish to present it to your attorney. Hope that you will be able to end these harassing calls through legal means.

Regards
Roxette

One day something may happen to you so I would be careful what I say. You could have a wreck,lose your job or even go through a divorce and your income change. Be careful because God doesn't like ugliness. You will answer for your actions with God.

Angry, I can feel the pain that you are going through. These collectors who earn money by harassing people and cause pain must be punished by all means. Please file your complaint against Steve at the local attorney office and request for some urgent legal action.

If you have recorded the phone calls of the collector, you are in a position of filing a lawsuit against him. Consult your attorney for future actions that can be taken against Steve.

I sent a letter to this debt collector and told him that I only want him to contact me via mail and not to call me any more.
He wrote me 2 letters then started to call again. Today I spoke with him and he started harashing me because I am sick right now, and in a lawsuit. Telling me how he is going to sue me and take me to court. I told him again to not call me again and hung up. He called me 4 times repeatly, one after the other.
Do I have any rights? I mail him not to call me to handle this matters and he has, then to keep calling 4 times after our conversation?
Please let me know- any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you,

ladyred129, give your letter a legal impact using this sample letter.

http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/template-cdletter.html

Send your letter through certified mail with return receipt requested. Once the company has received your letter, they are not allowed to call you further. Show proof to your lawyer that the company violated the law by contacting you after sending the C&D letter.

ladyred129, give your letter a legal impact using this sample letter.

http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/template-cdletter.html

Send your letter through certified mail with return receipt requested. Once the company has received your letter, they are not allowed to call you further. Show proof to your lawyer that the company violated the law by contacting you after sending the C&D letter.

On occasions when the collectors violate the laws, you can secretly record the phone calls without the collector's knowledge except in the state of CA, CT, DE, FL, IL, MD, MA, MI, MT, NH, PA, and WA. In these states, you have to take permission before recording the phone call.

You need to file your complaint in writing to the FTC as well the local AG's office along with all the proof of conversations and a witness if available. Send a copy of these complaints to the creditor that has hired this collection agency. Perhaps, you will be allowed to deal directly with the lenders.

You also have the legal rights to sue a collection agency for up to $1,000.00 in small claims court for violating the FTC regulations.
Make sure that you cover your base legally before making any such actions.

I have a question along these lines. I heard from a collection agency several months ago on two accounts that belong to my husband. This one collection agency has them both (OXFORD). I wrote and asked for validation. They sent me a peice of paper with the last six payments typed out, on both of the accounts. It just states when the payment was made and how much the payment was. They call that validation? They attached a hand written note that said 'give us a call'. VERY IMPORTANTLY, at the bottom of my validation request, I stated my usual NO PHONE CALL policy. RIght off, they started calling every day, seven days a week. Its never a human, its always an automative machine that says 'this is not a sales call, it is important that we speak with you'.... but when you call back, its always busy.
I haven't received anything else in the mail from them and the calls are starting to slack off a little, compaired to what we were getting. My question is, what should I do next? Obviously, they think they sent validation, and I'm not satisfied with what they sent. According to our credit report, they purchased these accounts. THey are not on our credit report. I'm afraid they soon will be though. But original creditor is now showing '0' balance, which usually means they sold the account. I don't know what to do right now, if anything. They sent what they call proof and so in their minds the ball is in my court, but I see it still in theirs since they didn't send what I asked for. Then to top it off, the phone calls that they continue to annoy me with after I asked for them TO NOT CALL. any opinions here? Should I write them again and state that I'm not satisfied with what they sent? this way it stays in dispute and can't go on my credit report until they finally do send proper validation? which, if they don't have, they can't report it anyways. I'm alittle confused here. thanks, shirley

When I had faxed him my letter,he did responed back saying that he did receive the letter. I also I have a message from him on my cell that he received the letter and still called.
Will that work or does it have to be certified?

Thanks for the help...

Ok, I am giving my opinions to Shirley first... since Oxford has not entertained the validation request properly, write a letter to them explaining their failure to give the complete picture of the account and that you are waiting for further info. It will comprise of the following points(mention those required ones). Send this letter certified so that you have proof of the last action made from your side. Bills of the last payments do not validate the debt legally and completely. It may or may not be a part of it. So, the company has to send you further information on debt validation before they can take any further steps.

Along with it, keep a follow up over the phone. If recording the call is permissible in your state, do it. Otherwise, notify them that you are recording the call. Basically, you need to stress them to give you the information that proves them to be the actual company purchasing account from your creditor. If they have purchased the account from your creditor, they have their information and should be given to the consumer when requested. Tell them that if this information is not given, some other company will again contact you for this account like they are doing and you will have to pay the money twice. What happened to the money that you paid them now? It will go wasted. So, make them give you the accurate information of this account. That's legal and that's perhaps is what you want!

Now, my opinions to ladyred129.... Proof is all that is important here. The recordings that you have on your cell phone will only prove those things that certified letters will. So, keep them in place and produce it whenever required for legal purpose.

we have had the same debt collector calling for my father in law 5-10 times daily for the past 6 months, i there anything we can do, my father in law is living in Brazil, basically waiting to die he is old, and uncomprehenisve right now....

also, i have another collector, whom i have asked to put in writing the agreement i can afford, and they refuse and keep calling and harassing, i asked another collector to do this and they had no problem and complied completly.......what is wrong with these collector??? they are rude arrogant and leave message with no information just stating your name and say call this number they don't say what its n reference to, why, im not calling anyone back unless they state their business........

Throw a cease and desist to the collection agencies and give it a legal effect. The company must stop calling you after receiving your notification. Leave option to contact you through mail only if they have something genuine to inform you. Remember, the collectors are bound by federal laws to stop making contacts after receiving your letter. Send the letter through certified mail with return receipt requested. This will be your proof about the actions taken. If they break the call by calling you again, you can take legal actions with the help of your attorney. If allowed in your state, start recording the phone calls for legal proof. Read the FTC commentary about dealing with the collection agencies. This will make your approach stronger and in the right direction.

http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcpa/commentary.htm

Anybody heard of them - dealing with them through a pay day loan company like PCT, or PCN -

how to stop harassing calls .told them that this not my bill, but they keep calling.

Are they getting on your nerves or what?

[color=red]Same post in another thread - Mike[/color]

http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/forums/about9162-1.html

Just because a company pulls your name out of their ass and claims you owe some random ammount doesnt make us thieves!

Cease and Desist letters are good for one thing to be completely honest.. Getting the debt transfered to another agency. If this is the route you are prepared to go be sure to keep plenty of copies handy.

If you feel a debt collection agency is harassing you then you should do two things, one contact your AG to file a complaint and the next is to contact the origional creditor and explain to them what is going on (if they still own the debt). If they feel that you are being honest then they will pull the account.

If you are in deep credit card dept I suggest either going with a debt counseling service or file bankrupcy if you don't think you can pay back the debt within a reasonable amount of time. Think about it a bankrupcy is not as bad a several r9's on your credit report. Creditors are more likely to work with a bankrupcy on file then with many r9's.

A debt counseling service is the best route to go I think but each situation for each debtor varies. If you do go this route then make sure you get one of the most important pieces of paper this service provides. An accepted proposal letter from each creditor stating that they will agree to sending a set amount each month. This will usualy stop late fee's and will many times lower or void an intrest rate. However if you do not get an accepted proposal from the creditor late fee's and intrest will still apply and you will have to find another avenue to work with them. It is important to call your counseling service agent and make sure you get these for every creditor.

In most states one agency is allowed to contact you 3x in one day or 3x in one week but no more than 3x. Meaning they can't call and speak with you or leave a message for you more than 3 times in a 7 day poeriod. Contact is a key word in the first sentence. Contact includes speaking with you or leaving a message with someone in your home or on your voice mail. Most agencies use a dialing automated system that will usualy dial a number for a set amount of rings, if the system does not detec a voice mail or person within the set amount of rings that is not considered
contact.

If you feel an agency is calling you more than they should and you have more than one agency calling it is important to write down the number, date, time and the agents name if you spoke with them or they left a message so that you make sure that it is one agency violating the rules instead of different calls from different agencies.

I recently dealt with a debtor who was upset because she thought I was calling her and leaving several messages per week. It turned out that this was a brand new account I recieved that day and that was only one count of verbal contact on it that day. She had confused me with another collector and agency.


I'm not saying that there aren't agencies who break the laws and collectors who treat people badly. In face I believe they outweigh the good collectors out there unfortunatly. Harassment is not defined in the fdcpa because it is too broad of a word. I generaly define harassment as something that would make a person feel harassed ut I've also found that a lot of people consider harassment just by stating they owe a debt also.

I hope you never lose your job or your business or fall on hard times because a loved one contracts a serious illness and runs up major medical bills. Honest people fall on hard times for a variety of reasons beyond their control. Furthermore, as several others have already pointed out, many of us are harrassed for debts we already paid or never even owed in the first place. I once fell on hard times due to a death in the family, but I repaid all my debts in due time, and it wasn't because bill collectors called and harrassed me at all hours of the day and night. I paid my debts as soon as I got back on my feet because that's the responsible thing to do. Oh, and by the way, I'm not a clown and I'm not irresponsible, unless you think earning a masters degree and flying helicopters for the U.S. Navy is some kind of joke. My point is, if I can fall behind repaying a debt, so can you. Whatever... you're nothing but a debt collection telecom dude making six bucks an hour. Hell, you probably still live in your Mom's basement. What do you know about mortgages, student loans, owning a business, etc. Perhaps you should change your name to Scuba Dick.

In all honesty, people fall on hard times and predatory lending will always be an issue, but for God sakes, read the terms and conditions and know what you are getting into. Card insurances are a joke and cccs is a scam as well. I have read more mistruths about fdcpa in this thread then I can count so before you people start throwing around laws you havent researched make sure you understand that most of those laws only hold water in certain states. ( ie: the mini miranda). Just pay your bills. If someone owed you people money Im sure you would be calling them too. So grow up, you made your bed now sleep in it. Im sick of everyone counting on credit as income. Thats how you all wound up in this mess.

Well nunya why don't you list the mis-truths that you cannot count. Also the FDCP is federal law which means it holds water in every state.

Oh, and if someone owed me money I wouldn't call them every day or threaten them. I just wouldn't loan them money anymore, file a suit if necessary and move on. And it doesn't matter why someone is in debt, CA's must follow the fdcpa, in every state.