WHAT COLLECTION AGENCIES CANNOT DO

Las Vegas Bankruptcy Attorney

It’s great that the FDCPA forces bill collectors and collection agencies to follow some basic procedures when trying to collect a debt. Even better, the law specifically outlaws the worst dept-collection horrors. The FDCPA makes the following dept collection practices illegal (at least when practiced by bill collectors employed by collection agencies):

• Contacting third parties (your family, friends, neighbors, or boss, for example) unless you, or a court, have explicitly given them permission to do so. Collectors may contact some third parties (including your parents) if you are a minor. They may also contact third parties for the purposes of locating you, as long as they do not in any way reveal why they are looking for you.
• Contacting you at unusual or inconvenient times. Under normal circumstances, any time between 8:00 A.M. and 9:00 P.M. is acceptable. For example, they can’t call you at 5:00 A.M. or late at night.
• Contacting you in unusual or inconvenient places. For example, they can’t accost you in a public restroom or at church.
• Contacting you at work if they know your employer has a policy against personal calls or if you tell them not to.
• Contacting you if you are represented by a lawyer. They can, however, contact you if your lawyer gives them permission, or if your lawyer fails to respond to the collector.
• Contacting you if they have received a written request from you asking them to cease contacting you. The collection agency is allowed to let you know they received your request and to tell you what steps they are now allowed to pursue.
• Making obscene, profane, or otherwise abusive comments.
• Publishing your name in a list of people owing money.
• Advertising the property for which the debt is owed as being for sale.
• Contacting you repeatedly and frequently by phone.
• Contacting you by phone and not disclosing their identity.
• Contacting you in any way that oppresses, harasses, or abuses you, including making threats of violence or other criminal actions.
• Misleading you as to the character, amount, or legal status of your debts or of services or compensation owed.
• Misleading you that the collector represents an attorney.
• Communicating or implying that you will go to jail, your paycheck will be garnished, or similar results will occur, unless such actions are legal and the collector intends to take such actions.

And so on. In short, the FDCPA bans just about any abusive, sneaky, dishonest practice that debt collector working for an agency might try. If you want to see the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act in its entirety, and you have access to the internet, you can read the law at Federal Trade Commission’s Web site, at www.ftc.gov. The FDCPA itself is at the following address: www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcpa/fdcpact.htm.

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