You never thought it would get this bad, but the spiraling debts have gone to collections. The credit card company charged them off, and now you’re getting phone calls day and night from some tough-sounding folks.
At first, the collection agency phone calls were pleasant. They wanted to work with you, and seemed to genuinely care about your situation. But then things started to get ugly.
When your account gets sent to a new collection agency, chances are they’ve been hired because they’re more aggressive in getting payments. Many of these collection agencies get paid only when they collect money from you, so they have an incentive to get whatever they can.
If you were making minimum wage and needed to collect money from someone over the phone in order to have enough money to pay your bills, what would you do?
That’s exactly the situation many front-line debt collectors find themselves in. So when they sit down to work at the collection agency in the morning, they may be tempted to bend the rules. Or just break them.
Harassment is illegal. Phone calls and letters, threats to call the police, and a variety of other tactics constitute harassment, and violate the federal debt collection laws.
Thankfully, there’s help for victims of debt collection harassment. And it won’t cost you a dime in up-front legal fees.
Most people don’t know about the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, but it’s a powerful federal law that gives you a right to sue for debt collection harassment. the law allows you to sue for money damages, and also for legal fees and costs. That means the bill collector can be forced to pay your legal fees as well as money damages for harassing you.
For California residents, there’s the extra protection of state laws that mirror the federal statutes. These state laws allow you to sue in state court rather than going into federal court. At times, there’s an advantage to doing that – other times, using the FDCPA is well enough.
It’s Time For Us To Talk
If you’re being harassed by bill collectors, you need to contact us right away. Take the first step in getting answers to your questions by setting up a free, no-obligation phone consultation. You can also give us a call at 866-787-8078 during normal business hours.