Stopping those creditors from calling

If you are having trouble maintaining good credit, you might find yourself being irritated by phone calls from the collection agencies. If your debt has been handed over to one of these agencies, you already have a black mark put on your credit report.  However it is important to know your rights when it comes to being in debt.  Phone calls from the collection agencies are unethical and if you understand the laws regarding good credit, you can protect yourself from the problems and all the illegal doings of these companies.

The most crucial law to know and review if you think that you are being treated badly is the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act, or FDCPA.  This is a law that will give you all the information that you may need so that you understand if that company is doing something wrong. If they are not, contact your government officials and police to file a compliant. 

The first thing that you should understand that you have 30 days to review the debt that they are putting upon you.  You should know that people do make mistakes, so this is a 30 day grace period that will give you enough time to make sure that it is all correct and in order.  Before this, the debt collectors should not start to all you and harass you by phone or any other form of contact.  After the 30 days are up, your phone may start to ring so much and this is going to be the collectors calling you to pay your bills.  Be aware that what they are saying is not only unethical it is also against the law.

The debt collector may not threaten you with anything that he or she says.  They do not have the power to do this.  For example, bill collectors cannot threaten to use your lack of good credit to ruin your reputation and tell others like your friends, boss or employer about your debt problems.  Most cases the collector may only share the information about your debt with you and your spouse and the lender.  Anything else is a violation and you can have the opportunity to sue a collection agency if they tell any of this private information to anyone other than that.

The collector cannot threaten to ruin your credit history. This is a very unacceptable threat.  The damage is already been done to your credit report.  Debts are not allowed to be reported for 7 to 10 years and this will depend on your credit-reporting agency.  The federal law does not allow a collection agency to further ruin your credit in any other way.  If they threaten this, or to tell anyone about your debt, the collection agency is in violation of the FDCPA and it is your obligation to report the agency to the authorities.  A collector cannot threaten to arrest you or garnish your wages in any way.

The only thing that a collection agency can do is taking you to court. If they are threatening anything other than this, you should not only get off the phone, you should also call the police and they will assist you in filing an official complaint.  Having good credit is on the line and if a collection agency is not doing their job right, they could be mis-reporting your debt as will. You need to know your rights and protect yourself too.