A Phone Call from a Credit Card Debt Collector? . . . To Eliminate Credit Card Debt Do Not Take It.
Telephone calls have no legal weight since there is no record of what was said on a call. Knowing this, credit card debt collectors will say threatening things on the phone and get away with telling their lies. That is why consumer debt collectors choose to use the phone over mail. Debt collectors lose their power when communications are reduced to writing.
Written communications from and to a credit card debt collector are what matter in court. If a consumer is writing to a debt collector it should always be certified return receipt requested.
Over the telephone credit card debt collectors lie a great deal. These are some of those lies:
1. They claim over the telephone that a lawsuit has been filed against you in your local court, and that the summons is on its way to you. This is an awful, scary lie.
2. Or they may ask you for a small payment, which is well within your means – surely that is acceptable? Not so, if you make this payment then you have legally documented admission to the debt, and made things worse.
3. They threaten to put a negative listing on your credit report.
4. They threaten to have your wages garnished.
5. They threaten to have your bank account seized.
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is violated by each of these threats.
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 to eliminate credit card debtt, 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.
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act allows the consumer to instruct the debt collector in writing to stop all collection calls. After that each call is a violation of the law, and subject to a $1000 penalty. To eliminate credit card debt, consumers should keep logs of the phone calls and contact a consumer rights attorney, who may agree to sue the credit card debt collector over these violations on a contingency fee basis.
Matt Highlander is a consumer who has researched credit counseling, debt settlement, debt collectors and collection attorneys. If you want to eliminate credit card debt, read the Credit Card Debt Survival Guide. Matt Highlander is a contributing writer. www.credit-card-debt-survival.com