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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
this all stems us inviting you here to talk specifically stems from this law suit
that just came down against
a large creditor yes the FTC just ordered one the largest ever by a
third party debt collectors 3.2 million dollars
for doing something what we find a lotta collectors do every day
to consumers but they were just called on it 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 lets go through those and talk about
those because there are certain
even times of day they can do it right yeah absolutely and a lot of then 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 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 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 a common thing as well like a pre-recorded message kind of thing
that's illegal yeah if they leave it there no matter the time it hit no
matter the time of the day but that's only on your cell phones
a little tricky there but only on your cell phone 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
there's case law out there that states that more than three times a day
is can be construed as harassment so three is there 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 said 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 lets say you 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 with what time of day
yes even 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
yeah just document down you can go our web-site we a lot of the free
information as a log and steps of what to do
okay if you're getting these calls course a few get a recorded message
that's even better proof right absolutely that's why I say that's like surveillance footage
that's that's documentation of them doing to one okay so he did you get that
save
that recorded message and you say save all written correspondents to
if you get anything in the mail the most those are actually
are covered by the business insurance so don't see very many violations there
but any correspondence you get absolutely there's rules that they have to Follow
before the first time that they communicate with you an attempt to
collect a debt they have to send you a dunning letter
that's a letter this advising your rights each time they communicate with you
that's another key factor they have to advise you have your rights and
it's commonly known as your mini Miranda and that's the phrase that
its an attempt to collect a debt any information will be used for that purpose
if they don't do that this 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 for that
small tedious mistake okay so let's say you've make these logs you've got
all your
documentation ready then what that's when we turn to someone for help in representing
right so yeah
yeah that's what we do with our credit repair clients me coach
them
and educate them on what they can do to document really build a case and then we get them our
attorney
the firm at Addelman law firm specializes in Ft CPA claims which is
the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act okay
and they'll get you taken care of so how do we find you if needed he absolutely reach us on
the web it's certified credit experts dot com
or give us a call 816 994 4600 always a pleasure chatting with you thanks for
coming in today
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