How the FDCPA protects you from abusive collections practices

Often, the fuming voice on the other end of the line insists that you owe the debt, even though you don’t recognize either the debt or the collector.

So before you feel guilty and promise to pay it off, consider two probable scenarios:

• It’s a con artist trying to scam you.
• It could be a case of tagging, which is when a collector chases you for someone else’s debt.

Nowadays, such scenarios are creating problems for consumers, advocates, and regulators. So how can you be sure that the call you are getting is a genuine one? Well, here are 7 ways to find out.

1. 1 Shift the conversation - Whether it is a real debt or a scam, the caller will ask questions. Don’t answer them. Instead, reply with questions of your own. A legitimate debt collector will answer your questions, provided that they’re relevant to the debt. Legally, the caller should provide you with sufficient details to support their claim, and you have every right to question the debt, the collector, and the collection agency. If you have doubts regarding the debt or the caller’s behavior, don’t provide any information about you.
2. 2 Receive confirmation - Legally, a debt collector has five days from the first phone call to send you a written confirmation of the debt. Joseph H. Marman of Marman Law says that most collection agencies send this in advance and also spell out some of your rights as a debtor - disputing the debt, for instance.
3. 3 Verify the collection agency - Plug the name of the company or the phone number into an internet search engine. Reach out to your state attorney general’s office or department of consumer affairs to try to find out if the collection agency is licensed to collect in your state. Check with the BBB to know if there have been complaints about the firm. Moreover, if the agent claims to be associated with an attorney’s office, check with the state bar or state office of court administration.
4. 4 Make sure the debt is yours - Just because the collection agency is legit doesn’t make the debt yours. Collectors are human beings and are prone to mistakes. However, your credit report can provide you with a quick view of the debts you currently owe. Since your unsettled debts stay on your report for 7 years, you can pull up your credit report by either visiting AnnualCreditReport.com or by calling (877) 322-8228. If the debt isn’t listed there, there's a good chance that it's a scam, a case of mistaken identity, or a real debt that is past the statute of limitations for collections.
5. 5 Check your state's statute of limitations (SOL) - If the debt is past the statute of limitations for debt collection in your state, the collector can’t force you to pay it. Even if the debt is sold to a new collection agency, you are not obligated to pay. It doesn’t matter who owns it, it can’t be listed on your history or even used to calculate your FICO score. And while the collection agency could still sue you for the debt, they would not have grounds to win the suit.
6. 6 Ask to verify the debt - After you have received a written document claiming you owe the debt, you have 30 days to request the collection agency verify it. Until the collection agency verifies the debt, it has to stop all collection attempts. However, ideally you should arrange to receive the reply in a post office box or in your office to protect your identity.
7. 7 Make sure the proof is legit - The response that you receive from the collection agency could take many shapes. It could be a copy of the original credit agreement, a copy of the charge-off statement or an invoice from the original creditor. Or, it could simply be information about the debt – the original creditor’s name, the account number, charge-off amount, and current balance. However, to strengthen their claim, the collection agency should at least show you the last four digits of your SSN.

Financial experts and attorneys say that to register a complaint that a debt collector has violated the FDCPA, you’ve got to meet the following four legal requirements:

• 1 You must be a consumer.
• 2 Your debt should be a consumer one. Simply put, your financial obligations have to be your own, such as personal debts, your family’s debts, or other debts attached to your household. Business debt does not qualify.
• 3 Debt collectors must have contacted you for payments.
• 4 Debt collectors must have violated the FDCPA or similar state statutes, such as California’s Rosenthal statute.

There are 4 requirements for a debt collection case, according to attorneys who have won them.

The requirements are:

1. 1 The person who wants to file a lawsuit against a debt collector should be a consumer.
2. 2 The debt should be consumer debt: personal, family, or household. Business debt will not be entertained.
3. 3 The suit should be filed against a collection agency or other debt collector.
4. 4 The FDCPA should have been violated by the debt collector.

A recent ruling by the Supreme Court says that the one year deadline for filing a FDCPA lawsuit starts from the time the violation has taken place, not the time it is discovered. So if a debt collector violates the FDCPA, make sure you file your lawsuit quickly, because the clock has already started running.

There are many actions that can be considered a violation of the law by debt collectors. Some of them are FDCPA violations; others are violations of state statutes.

Basically, FDCPA violations are governed by the principle of strict liability, which means that debt collectors can be held liable for violations regardless of their intent. In other words, they don’t have to know that they violated the law to be held liable for violating that law.

The FDCPA stipulates a fine of $1000 on the debt collectors for each violation, plus attorney’s fees. As a result, a lot of debt collectors have had to shell out penalties amounting to $100,000 or more.

Under many state statutes, you can file what legal eagles call torts, which are just civil causes of action. A tort might be the intentional infliction of emotional distress, the grounds for which might be using profane language against you in public, or engaging in deliberate defamation to extract money from you that lead to emotional distress. Emotion plays quite a role in these types of collection cases, which have become quite rampant, especially in the form of harassment over the phone.

Apart from the intentional infliction of emotional distress, you may be able to bring a tort based on ignorant or negligent infliction of emotional distress at the hands of unscrupulous debt collectors. In other words, the inflicted distress doesn’t necessarily have to be intentional to be tortable.

Debt collectors sometimes file false charges against you that they can’t prove in the court of law. In such situations, the FDCPA may provide you with additional legal recourse against abusive or manipulative debt collectors.

As soon as you get a debt collection letter, reply to it. Any delay in responding to collection letters may make the matter worse, since debt collectors can get more aggressive with each passing day. Never ignore collection letters, or calls from debt collectors.

As far as collection letters are concerned, it is very important to ensure you understand what it says before replying. A proper collection letter should provide you with the essential information related to your debt. For instance, it should include the name of the original creditor, how much you owe, the means to make the repayments, and how to dispute any discrepancy.

Debt collection letters may contain wrong, misleading, or false information. Frequently, that information is used to create confusion and threaten debtors. But the good news is that debtors can sue a debt collector for such malpractice.

1. 1 You can sue a harassing debt collector in a state court.

   If you believe that the debt collector has violated the FDCPA, you can file a lawsuit against the debt collector in your state court. However, filing the case is not enough; you have to prove that the debt collector has harassed you. If you can prove that, you are eligible to collect $1000 in statutory damages per violation; more if you can establish that you have suffered harm from the violations.

   Though this is a time consuming process, and you should retain an attorney for the best chance of success, but you can win significant monetary compensation if you win.

2. 2 You can file a lawsuit without an attorney in the small claims court.

   If you don’t want to hire an attorney, then you can bring your case to small claims court. You just need to file a simple court document to file the case. The process will usually take less than 2 months to complete. It’s a faster, less complicated process, but the downside is that there are limits on how much compensation you can seek in small claims court.

3. 3 You can file a report with your state’s Attorney General

   A harassed consumer can contact their state’s attorney general to report the violation. Some states enforce the FDCPA, or similar laws passed by their own state, to protect consumers. So, if the state attorney general gets a violation report against a debt collector multiple times, they might file a suit against the debt collector on behalf of the state.

4. 4 You can report the violation to a government agency

   The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforces the FDCPA. Thus, you can contact the FTC to report a debt collector who has harassed you or otherwise violated the FDCPA. You can submit your complaint online using the FTC's Complaint Assistant website https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/.

   Another agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) also works as a problem solver. If a consumer files a complaint against a creditor, the CFPB tries to find a solution to the problem. You can submit your complaint here: www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint.

   Most of the time, when creditors can't collect debts on their own, they can contact the collection agencies, who buy the debt form creditors at a discounted rate. Not all collection agencies harass consumers to collect on their debt, but some collection agencies apply unethical tactics like calling family members, co-workers or employers for the money. Sometimes, they threaten or use abusive language to coerce the debtors into paying. These tactics are violations of the FDCPA. If they happen to you, consult an experienced debt collection attorney to discuss the matter and get the right advice. Consultations are usually free, and attorneys are required to keep your information confidential as well.

Well, they can, but their times are limited.

The FDCPA says debt collectors can call you from Monday to Saturday between 8 am and 9 pm. On Sunday, they may call you between 1 pm and 5 pm. The good news is that the FDCPA prohibits collection agencies from calling you on Sunday at all if you specifically instruct them not to do so. Likewise, if you tell them not to call you on certain holidays, they must comply. Moreover, in some states, collection calls during the official holidays are strictly prohibited.

If collections agencies call you outside the allowed hours, they are in violation of the FDCPA.

Ask the debt collection agency to call you during the week if you genuinely owe a debt; it’s better to pay off valid debts as soon as possible, as collection agencies won’t stop chasing you until you do.

If you don’t have sufficient money to satisfy your creditors, then try to settle your unpaid accounts through a professional debt relief company or a law firm like OVLG. The added advantage of working with a law firm is that aside from settling your debts, you can get legal advice from expert debt attorneys.

The law firm or a debt relief company can negotiate with collectors with an understanding of what you can afford, and helping to lower your payoff amount. It will help you manage debts smartly, save money, and end annoying collection calls—on Sundays and the other 6 days of the week.

As mentioned before, the FDCPA allows collection agencies to call debtors on Sundays between 1 pm and 5 pm. However, some collection agencies don’t follow those regulations, and call debtors at night. In that case, debtors can contact OVLG’s experienced FDCPA attorneys to resist unfair debt collection practices. Our attorneys can help them sue collection agencies that violate the FDCPA and get a financial reward of $1000 per violation.

Unfortunately, no. The FDCPA doesn’t give you any protection regarding this matter. If you find a collection account on your credit report, then you can ask the collection agency to validate it by some other means, but they have no legal obligation to do so. That’s because they did not initiate communication with you, which is required by the FDCPA. A collection account on your credit report does not fall under the definition of initial communication as laid out by the FDCPA, and therefore doesn’t trigger your validation rights.

If you’re lucky, the collection agency will validate the debt after receiving your written request. But they are not bound to do so by law.

Simply put, no. Since your debt validation rights are not triggered when you find a collection account on your credit report, you don’t have a legal basis for a tort. Neither the FDCPA nor the FCRA provide such a basis.

Additionally, the FDCPA doesn’t require debt collection agencies to work with you at that point. Even if the collection agency sends you validation documents and you dispute them, the collection agency has no requirement to provide further documentation at that point.

The FDCPA doesn’t specify the number of times a collection agency can call you. However, collectors can’t call you continuously just to harass you.

The FDCPA doesn’t allow the garnishment of federal benefits. However, debt collectors can nevertheless garnish your federal benefits under special circumstances. If you owe alimony, child support, federal tax, or student loans, collection agencies can garnish your federal benefits.

The FDCPA doesn’t allow debt collectors to garnish wages directly. The debt collectors must first win a judgement against the debtor. That means they must file a lawsuit and serve the debtor by summons. They have to fight and win the lawsuit, and receive a wage garnishment order from the court. Only then can they send the court order to your employer and garnish your wages. At that point, they can even levy your bank account.

When you have multiple debts, you can decide which debts will be paid off first. When you make payments to debt collectors, the FDCPA requires them to apply payments to the debts of your choice - if you tell them. You should. When you do, they can’t apply the payments based on their own whims and fancies - or, more to the point, whatever will allow them to charge you the most money. Debt collectors often apply your payments to the lowest interest debts so as to add additional interest to high-interest debts. That inflates their profit margin - at your cost.