April 8,2009
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Buffeted by Credit Card Debt Collectors?, Pt.2
It's time to take some action.Hard-ball excessive demands: In the first place, these collection agencies aren't even allowed to demand overbearing repayment schedules. One of the big abuses is to demand of the credit card debtor, the collection of certain added penalties and hiked interests or, even, interest on those. Various state laws are in place to protect credit card consumers from these abuses. Some of the sleezies in collections try to skirt around these protections by ‘bundling'. Bundling is the shady practice of packaging these illicit fees into one lump-sum along with the debt. They present these to both credit card consumer and the credit bureaus. By combining them all and not itemizing, the credit card consumer is hard-pressed to know what's going on. So, what these consumers need to do is to demand an itemization for the charges to validate the collectors' claims. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act provides consumers with the authority to demand this. The first step is to form and send a certified letter requesting this documentation.
Excessive Harassment: We kind of expect credit card debt collectors to be annoying but there are limits as to what is legal. Some of the common and illegal abuses are constant phone calls using high-pressure and strong language. .About 27,382 consumers filed complaints with the FTC last year over these. Threats and ethnic innuendos are absolutely not allowed. From this larger group, there were a large amount of complaints lodged with the FTC over this practice also (about 10,610).
In most states, even the allowable hours to call are clearly established. No early morning calls before 8: AM nor any late-might calls after 9: PM are allowed in most states. The FTC is listening to these credit card consumers and is taking action. The way to protect one's self from this is to catch the offenders in the act. If possible, announce that you, too, will be recording the conversations (as the collectors should also be). That failing, take pencil and paper and scratch the person's name to whom you're speaking and jot down some of their more offensive language. You can even download a helpful worksheet from the DebtCollectionAnswers.com website to help you along. You may find yourself in the position to take legal action. If nothing else, it will probably serve to scare your attacker into being more civil.