Don’t Take Phone Calls from Credit Card Debt Collectors
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.
The record of written contact with a credit card debt collector is what holds weight in court. That record is a lot stronger when a consumer sends all letters 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. They advise you to make an affordable token payment because they know that if you do this then you are documenting admission to the debt.
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 tell you they can seize your bank account.
Each of these lies is punishable with a $1000 fine with 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 get stuck on the telephone with a debt collector, get them to tell you which debt they are calling about, tell them that you need written notice of it from them, and hang up.
Fortunately, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act allows you to write to the debt collector instructing them to stop all collection calls. Once this has happened, any calls are subject to a $1000 penalty because they then violate the law. You can keep a log of every call and then contact a consumer rights attorney about suing the debt collector, fee paid on the contingency of winning.