Fair Debt Collection Act

Under the Fair Debt Collection Act, creditors and debt collectors are limited in the actions that they can take to collect debts. Being aware of the laws that protect you can help you fight back against unfair and illegal debt collection practices Under the Fair Debt Collection Act creditors cannot:

• Contact you at your place of employment if they aware of or have reason to know that you are prohibited from receiving these type of calls at your work place. If you are receiving harassing creditor calls at your work place, make the creditor aware that you are not allowed to receive calls of this nature, and failure to cease making these calls at your work place is a violation of the law.

• Contact relatives, friends or neighbors about your debt. A creditor should not be contacting your friends and relatives to inform them about your debt or to try to collect on the debts. Contacting these parties is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Act.

• Contacting you after you have informed the creditor in writing that you wish to cease any further communication about the debt. After notifying the creditor in writing that you do not wish to be contacted about the debt, the creditor needs to cease any further communication about the debt. The creditor can only contact you about the debt to inform you that they will terminate any future effort to collect the debt or to inform you that they are going to seek a specific action. Below is a sample letter that you can utilize to inform the creditor that you wish to cease any further communication about the debt.

                Sample Cease and Desist Letter

• Threatening you with arrest/imprisonment, or threatening legal action that is not allowed and contemplated. A debt collector cannot threaten to take legal action unless they are legally allowed to use that method for collecting the debt and they intend to take that action. You cannot be arrested or imprisoned for failing to pay your debts.