Protecting Your Rights Against Abusive Creditors

In most cases, junk debt buyers and creditors are so eager to collect that they will do practically anything to get the money, regardless whether their actions are illegal or not. The good news is, complaints about abusive creditors and debt collectors are on the rise that the Federal Trade Commission released the top complaints that consumers report about their debt collectors:

Demands Unreasonable Debt Payment

According to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act or FDCPA, debt collectors are not allowed to misrepresent the amount or the legal status of a certain debt. This means creditors or junk debt buyers cannot collect more than the original debt value and are not allowed to inflate the debt with interest or added charges unless permitted under state law. As a consumer, you have every right to request a validation of the debt in writing. This will force the creditor to present documents that will prove ownership of the debt.

Abusive Collection Practices

Debt collectors are prohibited from harassing debtors into paying the debt. This means they cannot use threats, profanity, racial slurs or any demeaning language to shame debtors into paying the money owed. They cannot call you at inconvenient times to collect unless you stated that it’s fine to call before 8 in the morning or beyond 9 in the evening. It’s important to keep a good record of every correspondence and conversations you had with your creditor as this could be the key to winning the credit card lawsuit.

Threats of Credit Card Lawsuit, Wage Garnishment, etc.

Debt collectors are prohibited from using wage garnishment, jail time or filing a credit card lawsuit when they do not intend to keep their words or do not have legal authority to carry out the threats. If your creditor is threatening to put you to jail to make you pay up, he is breaking the law because there is no law in the US that pertains to putting people in jail for credit card debts. Credit card lawsuit fall under civil lawsuit, not criminal cases. Therefore, there should be no fear of doing time even if your creditor files a credit card lawsuit.

Additionally, creditors and debt collectors have no legal rights to garnish wages or put lien on your properties unless they filed a credit card lawsuit and they managed to win it. The only time they will be allowed by the court to collect cash via wage garnishment or property lien is when they got a default judgment ruling at the conclusion of the credit card lawsuit they filed.