Consumers Have Rights Under Fed Law

If you are a consumer and you feel that you are being abused or harassed by a debt collector, there is hope!  There is a Federal law that governs the way debt collectors can and cannot behave while collecting consumer debts.  It is called the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, commonly referred to as the “FDCPA.”

In general, the FDCPA protects consumers from abusive treatment by debt collectors who are collecting consumer debts  as outlined in the FDCPA.  Some of the prohibited conduct by debt collectors is as follows*:

• A debt collector cannot contact a third party regarding your debt except in a very narrow, limited circumstance.
• A debt collector cannot contact you before 8AM or after 9PM, cannot contact you if you are represented by an attorney, or contact you at your work if they know that your employer prohibits you from receiving calls at work.
• A debt collector cannot contact you, except in limited situations, if you notify the debt collector in writing that you refuse to pay the debt.
• A debt collector cannot harass, oppress, or abuse any person including the use of threat of violence, criminal means, obscene or profane language, calling repeatedly or continuously with the intent to annoy, abuse or harass any person at the called number.
• A debt collector cannot use false, deceptive or misleading representations such as pretending to be an attorney, threatening arrest or imprisonment, threatening to garnish your property or wages in Pennsylvania, implying that a consumer committed a crime.
• A debt collector cannot use unfair means to collect a debt including collecting more than allowed by your agreement or by law, accepting a post-dated check by more than five days, trying to get a consumer to provide a post-dated check with the intention to threaten criminal prosecution, and threatening to take nonjudicial action to take your property if they have no right to do so.

If you are a Pennsylvania consumer who has been subjected to any abusive treatment by a debt collector, you should contact a qualified consumer attorney to review your case.  If you are viewing this page and you reside in a state other than Pennsylvania, you can find a list of qualified consumer attorneys in your state here.

Stay tuned for future posts that will explain the FDCPA in more detail including your rights and remedies under the FDCPA.

(* This is not an all-inclusive list of prohibited conduct under the FDCPA.)

(Copyright - Amy B. Good-Ashman 2008)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!