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when it comes to debt collection there are a lot of pressures on consumers and because
of those pressures to pay and to resolve these things quickly
consumers may not be necessarily aware of all the rights that they have when
communicating with debt collection
agencies whether it's the company they owe or a third party debt collection
agency so it's important that people remember that uh... the rules are on
their side
and the direction of the conversation is something that they can completely
control
uh... the one thing about the uh... debt collection agencies is they are all
governed by the fair debt collection practices act which is a set of rules of
protects the consumer from abusive practices of debt collection agencies
So it's important for consumers to be very familiar with some of the main
components of that
uh... one of the main components of that of course is the fact that they can't
make threats
specific threats of lawsuits of going to jail anything like that uh... they can't
do that
they can't use abusive language when they're collecting debt
uh... and they can't call outside of certain hours: before eight a_m_ or after
nine p_m_
your local calling time.
so you have that window where they're calling you
where they're allowed to call you but if they call you outside, that's your local time,
if they call you outside of those hours then they're in violation of the fair debt
collection practices act. So it's important for consumers to know that those rules
are in place to protect them.
the other thing is is very important it's a very good tactic for consumers to
use is don't wait for the phone to ring,
that collection agency to call you,
what you want to do is take control the situation by giving them the honest
details about where you are financially and what you are capable of committing to
and then make sure you are the one initiating thr contact, don't wait for them to
call you or the phone to ring.
Now on your end, you pick up the phone talk to them daily, talk to them weekly, keep
them updated and apprised of your situation until you're able to
get caught up or get up to date
or or to make some other types of arrangements. And when things get out of
hand with the debt collectors and you know you're not able to resolve things
in your current financial situation it's always best to reach out for help
and getting help from a non-profit credit counseling agency is
very important in those situations because a lot of times it may just be too much for the
consumer to bear
uh... especially when there are multiple collection agencies calling at
different hours a day over and over again
and you need somebody to come in and take a look at it from a different
perspective