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are debt collectors coming after you unfairly our credit expert is here now
with some advice on
how to really protect yourself Bo Thomas is a certified credit expert who has
helped
consumers all across the country thank you for coming and thank you
thank you all stems us inviting you here to talk specifically stems from this
law suit that just came down against
a large creditor yeah the FTC just ordered one of the largest ever by a third
party debt collectors 3.2 million dollars
for doing some what we find a lotta collectors do every day
to consumers that but they were just called on yeah there are some serious
very specific lines for creditors to call you or get in touch with you and how
they can do it and when they can do it myself through lets talk about those
because there are certain
even times a day they can do it yeah absolutely and a lot don't follow the
rules
but some of the most common ones that they violate and
what this 3.2 million dollar settlement was
calling before I 8 o'clock in the morning or after nine o'clock at night
hiding their identity one of the really common ones there is that they block the
caller ID
so you don't know who it is that's calling so you go ahead and pick up right right
they can I use an automatic dialer to call your cell phone
and that's another real common thing as well like a per-recorded message to
that's illegal yeah if they leave it there no matter the time no
matter the time of the day but that's only on your cell phones
a little tricky there only okay so on your home phone that's okay
all right very good and this first one we forgot to mention is you cannot call
several times yeah there's a limit and that's harassed there's
case law out there that states that more than three times in a day
can be construed as harassment so threes their max
per 24 hour period okay and then you can ask them to
cease and desist you can make a formal request yeah so if you if you tell them
that you refuse to pay the debt
and to stop calling they have to stop calling if they continue to call after
that
that's when you need to take action okay so now I see in a court situation or
something if you try and
and turn to legal help for this it turns into a he said she said
so how in the world do you
you know protect yourself yeah you to take steps
you know document all calls log all the calls as they call
even if it's a log just jot down who you spoke to or
with what time of day it's just your own hand written actually that's all you need its
you don't have to have a smoking gun or anything like that yeah
yet just document down you can go to be at our web-site be a lot of the free
information as a log and steps up what to do
okay if you're getting these calls course a few get a recorded message
that's maybe even absolutely that's why I say that's like surveillance footage
that's that's documentation of them doing okay so if you get that
save
that recorded message and tapes you say all written correspondents to
if you get anything in the mail the most those are actually
covered by the business insurance so don't see very many violations there but any
correspondence you get absolutely there's also that the Follow
before the first time that they communicate with you an attempt to
collect a debt they have to send you a dunning letter
it's a letter this advising your rights each time they communicate with you
that's another key factor they have to advise you of your rights and
it's commonly known as your mini Miranda and that's the phrase it's
an attempt to collect a debt near any information will used for that purpose
if they don't do that their subject up to a thousand dollar
fine which goes to the consumer not to anybody else the consumer can get up to a
thousand dollars just but
small tedious mistake okay so let's say you've make logs you've got
all of you're
documentation ready and then what that's when we turn to someone to help in
representing us yeah actually
yeah that's and that's what we do it with our credit repair clients we coach
them
and educate them on what they can do to document really build the case then get
them our attorney
the firm attleman law firm specializes in Ft CPA claims which is
the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act okay
and he'll get you taken of so how do we find you if needed he absolutely you can
reach us on the web at certified credit experts dot com
or give us a call at 816 994 4600
always a pleasure chatting with you thanks for coming in today so
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