Find Information About Lots of Great Topics

There is little or no legal weight to a phone call from a credit card debt collector. Anyone can say anything and get away with it. Debt collectors use that to their full advantage. The telephone is their weapon of choice. Once things get reduced to writing, they become toothless.

What matters in court are the written communications, or the lack of them, between a consumer and a credit card debt collector. Mail sent certified return receipt requested further helps the consumer put the debt collector on the defensive.

There is a saying in online consumer forums, 100 percent of debt collectors tell lies 100 percent of the time. Here are some examples of those lies.

1. They claim you are the target of a lawsuit in your local court and that you’ll get your summons any day.

2. They threaten to have you arrested. (Debts are civil, not criminal.)

3. They tell you you may be arrested, knowing no one can be arrested for a civil matter.

4. They will tell you may have your wages reduced to pay your debt, and you will get a negative listing on your credit report.

5. They threaten to have your bank account seized.

Each of these lies is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Credit card debt collectors use the phone attempting to get personal details such as your bank account number, Social Security number, and work number, as well as getting you to confirm your credit card number and admit to the debt in question. The Credit Card Debt Survival Guide advises that you should never share any personal information with people on the telephone, as they could be anyone, and that you should always dispute and deny the debt to which they are referring and hang up the phone.

If you end up taking a call from a credit card debt collector, you should only stay on long enough to find out what debt they are telephoning about. Before hanging up, advise them that you need written notice of this debt and that you will not talk about it over the phone.

You should be aware that as a consumer the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act gives you the right to write to the debt collector to instruct them to stop telephoning you. If they continue, they are breaking the law and are liable to a $1000 penalty for each call made. Consumers are advised to log each phone call to interest a specialist consumer rights attorney in suing the debt collector on a contingency fee basis.

Popularity: 1% [?]