The Free Legal Information Network » Collection Agencies http://freelegalinfo.net Search our database for answers to your legal questions Wed, 17 Sep 2008 19:39:53 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 en hourly 1 What to Do About Collection Agency Harassment http://freelegalinfo.net/what-to-do-about-collection-agency-harassment/ http://freelegalinfo.net/what-to-do-about-collection-agency-harassment/#comments Sat, 14 Jun 2008 20:45:05 +0000 admin http://freelegalinfo.net/?p=336
When the collector calls you an excessive amount of time per day that is one form of harassment. This harassment can be stopped. You have protection under the law against certain abusive tactics that some collection agencies employ.

In the state of Texas, business solicitation calls can not be placed before 8 am or after 8 pm your time. That means that if a collection agency calls you before or after those hours, its harassment. You have the legal right to hang up under this condition.

Another common ploy they use in harassment is to threaten you. This is very serious harassment. These are some of the types of verbal threats they may use against you: saying that they will send out a police officer, or telling you they will freeze your accounts. Any statement that they make like this has to be lawful and they have to really intend to take action. If you receive this treatment you should check the federal and state laws to see if they can make the threat good.

The government is the only “person” able to freeze your accounts. Don’t believe a collector when he tells you he can do this. They may claim to be a lawyer and they better be one if they say they are. Otherwise, the collector has violated a federal law. They use this tactic because it sounds very serious and will intimidate a lot of debtors. Don’t let them intimidate you into forfeiting your right to being treated correctly under the law. Do learn about your rights.

They would have to have filed a warrant and have a court order to bring you in from your home, which is usually not an option for them to exercise.

The most basic way to stop harassment is to place a privacy manager on your phone. If anyone with an 800 number or other specific identity you don’t want calling you calls, then you can set it to make them go through a recorded announcement before they reach you. You can also use caller ID to help screen your calls.

If you want to find more legal options for yourself, you can contact a lawyer in your area or look up the information on the internet. The first law to look for is The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. You may have the grounds for a lawsuit.

Before the collector can try to collect the debt, he must state that it’s an attempt to collect a debt and any information attained will be used for that purpose. He also has to tell you that the call may be recorded.

You can record the collection calls too. Recording the calls is a good measure to take to protect yourself in case the collector is verbally abusive, such as screaming at you, or cursing you. If you do want to record them then you have to tell them you’re recording the conversation so it will be admissible evidence of harassment in court.

Learn the federal and state laws concerning the collection of debts laws. That way you know what the collectors can legally do when attempting to collect a debt.

About the Author

Tristan Andrews is a freelance author who writes articles about Collection Agencies and Commercial Collections.

Author Profile: franchises

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Collectors have to study and pass tests with their companies in many cases before they become collectors. They know the laws that they legally must adhere to as collectors and they can actually be fined for breaking the law. But they don’t always follow it. Some companies and individual collectors obey the law and some don’t.

By law they are required to supply you with all information in regards to your original debt. They have to supply you with the information within 30 days of your request for it. The best way to the make your request is to send a certified return receipt letter stating that you want this information. If they can’t supply it then they have to stop reporting to the credit bureaus concerning your debt and lack of payment. They also have to leave you alone for a while.

If they can’t supply documentation of your debt that show how much you owe them, then you are usually released from this debt, but there are too many loop holes to use this part of the law it as a means of debt relief. The credit bureaus have to go by this same law and if they can’t supply you with proof then it comes off of your report.

In the state of Texas they are not allowed to call between 8pm and 8am, and if they do you can get them for harassment charges, but relief from their calls won’t last for long. They can start to calling again after a period of time. The calls have to be made according to your time zone, not their time zone.

If the collector calls repeatedly and hangs up or just calls repeatedly leaving messages you can file a police report about it, if you know the number the collector is calling from. This report can be against the company and the individual collector.

Your case is assigned to a certain collector, but if he isn’t getting the desired result, his manager may call you to try and collect the debt. They may even play a game of good cop and bad cop with you in their effort to get you to pay.

Some of the other threats a collector may use, which are illegal are: telling you that you have committed a crime to disgrace you or using deceptive means to collect the debt.

You know what a threat is and you have the right to protect yourself under the law from threats and other types of harassment calls. When someone says they will freeze your accounts until you pay the debt, that’s a threat. They can’t freeze your account freeze your bank account. This scare tactic is illegal.

If a collector sys he will freeze your bank account or other asset, they are lying because they don’t have the authority to do it. You can have a lawyer handle this threat for you and the court will fine the collection agency or collector. The collection agency will have to pay the lawyer’s fees too.

About the Author
Tristan Andrews is a freelance author who writes articles about Collection Agencies and Commercial Collections.

Author Profile: jamesmlowe

Article Source: Populate.NET Article Directory

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