Congress passed the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act in 1977 to respond to unfair debt collection by collection agencies. The act protects consumers (business debt is excluded) from collection agencies, not from original creditors. So if you are getting 10 calls a day from Capital One, that is not a violation. If you are getting 10 calls a day from the collection agency for Capital One, that is a violation. Fortunately, the Iowa Debt Collection Practices Act does cover original creditors.
The most common violations we see with the FDCPA involve improper telephone calls and improper collection letters.
Telephone Calls
Debt Collectors can not:
*Call someone else and tell them you owe money
If they call your family, boss, neighbor, roommate etc. all they are allowed to do is try to locate you.
*Call you when you have told them it is an inconvenient time
So if you ask them not to call until your son goes to afternoon kindergarten at noon, they have to stop calling you in the morning.
*Call you many times throughout the day
Congress considers this harassment.
*Call you at work after you have told them your employer does not allow these calls
So if you get collector calls at work, note the date, time, who called and tell them you are not allowed to get these calls at work.
Letters
If you really want all contact to stop, you can write the collection agency a letter, simply tell them you can not pay or are disputing the debt and ask them to stop contacting you. After that they are allowed to send you one letter confirming they are ceasing contact. At that point they can either move the case to lawsuit or drop it. If they continue collection efforts, they have violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
Sample Letter
ABC Collection Service
1234 Main St.
Des Moines, Iowa 50265
Re: Your collection for American Express Account No. 1234-5678-9101-1121
Dear Sir or Madam,
I refuse or am unable to pay this debt. Please cease collection activity.
Jane Simmons
1234 College Street
Des Moines, IA 50309
Of course, in some cases the collection agency will refer your case for lawsuit at that point, but they are in violation of the FDCPA if they keep contacting you after you have sent the letter. Be sure to keep a copy of the letter you send. If they have a fax #, fax it too and keep the receipt. If you can, send the letter certified and keep the receipt.
Also, keep all collection letters you receive so you can bring them in for Jeff to look at. The first letter you receive from each collection agency is the most important. For example, if they don't send you a letter within 5 days of their first phone contact with specific disclaimers included, that is a violation. Hence, the phone logs are important and the letters.
These claims win or lose based on PROOF. So if you keep good notes on calls you receive: dates, times, name of caller, name of collection agency, who they are collecting for & what they say you are much more likely to succeed.
In the case that there are several debts standing in your name, it is difficult to keep track of all of them. Consider business debt solution, which is a sure way of managing all your debts.. If you have several debts, then there are chances of receiving more than one bill from the different lenders.
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