The Bill Collector Letter That Finally Gets Rid of Them
Posted by Sean Payne on October 2nd, 2009
Do you remember the feeling you get when a letter from a bill collector shows up in the mail? The queasy feeling you get in your guts when you’re told that you owe money that you are unable to repay? And later on, when the phone calls and letters hound you for money that you don’t have?
It’s time to turn the tables. It’s time to learn your rights and to exercise them.
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is a Federal law that outlines what debt collectors can and can’t do to collect debts from you. The Act, also known as the FDCPA, puts definite limits on when and how these debt collectors can contact you to collect.
For example, a debt collector cannot call you at work except to find out the telephone number to call you at home. They cannot inform other people, including your employer, about the debt you owe.
Also, debt collectors can’t call you or continue to contact you if you tell them that they aren’t to do so anymore. That’s what we’re going to learn to do.
The magic letter that sends bill collectors running consists of two things:
The first is any identifying information for you. This would include your name, home address, and account number for the account in question, as well as any other information they will need to identify you as the account holder for the debt in question.
The second thing is to tell them that you want them to cease communicating with you in any way.
These two things are all that the FDCPA requires that you do to keep the debt collector from harassing you or contacting you in the future. The only correspondence that the debt collector can send you in the future is a letter that says they will cease contacting you, and whether they’re going to pursue any legal action to collect on the debt.
When you send your bill collector letter, you’d be wise to mail it via certified mail. Make sure to request a delivery receipt, so that when the debt collector get the letter, you’ll receive notification that they’ve gotten it. Make sure that you save the receipt in case you have to prove that they actually got the letter.
According to the rules of the FDCPA, if the debt collector continues to contact you in the future, they’re in violation of the law. You then have the right to report them to the FTC, which is the agency that actually enforces the FDCPA. After you’ve notified the FTC about the legal violation by the debt collector, the FTC can take legal action against the debt collector on your behalf.
Don’t forget that even if you notify the debt collector not to contact you anymore, they can still pursue you via legal action if they want to collect on the debt. The letter I’ve described can only keep debt collectors from harassing you. It can’t keep them from suing you in a court of law if they still intend to collect on the debt.