Creditors can be very aggressive in their efforts to collect overdue debts. Often the original creditor sells the debt to a debt collector who receives a direct commission on the money they collect, so they are very motivated to collect the money. In the past, this motivation has led creditors and debt collectors to harass the debtors, which often caused them a lot of stress and disrupted their lives.
While creditors do have a right to try to collect the money a person owes to them, they do not have the right to harass the person. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) was passed in 1996 and revised in 2006. This act and other laws have defined what creditors can and cannot do as they try to collect on a debt.
Creditors cannot legally:
- Call you before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. or any time on Sundays
- Call you names or use profanity
- Threaten you in any way
- Lie or lead you to believe false assumptions (including telling you that you can be arrested if you don’t pay the debt, which you can’t)
- Refuse to prove any of their statements or provide evidence of the debt
- Refuse information or lie about their name or their supervisor’s name
- Defame you in public or tell anyone else about your debts (except the creditor, your attorney, the creditor’s attorney, your spouse, or a credit reporting agency)
- Badger family and friends (Creditors can call your associates to get your contact information, but have to stop if they are asked to.)
- Call you at work if your employer has asked them not to
- Continue to call you if you have sent a written letter to the debt company asking them not to
- Ask you to pay more than you owe or misrepresent the amount of your debt
- Add additional fees to your debt
- Use violence or intimidation
In addition, the creditor must:
- Send you a debt validation notice within 5 days of their initial communication. This must include the debt amount, the name of the creditor, and a statement of the time you have to dispute the debt (usually 30 days)
- Provide within 30 days any evidence of the debt that you request
If a debt collector uses any of these tactics with you, you should report them to their employer immediately. Because collectors receive commissions on the money they collect, they tend to be very aggressive, but if they cross the line of what they are legally allowed to do, they could be fined or fired.
If harassing behavior continues, you should make a note of the time, date, collector’s name, name of the collection agency, and any other details about the incident. If possible, try to get a friend, neighbor, or someone else to witness the harassment. You can file a formal complaint with the Federal Trade commission, State Attorney General, Better Business Bureau, the Association of Credit and Collection Professionals, or the National Association of consumer Advocates. Each of these organizations has some influence over credit collection agencies and can take measures to punish them for the harassment.