Guilt Stops Many From Dealing Effectively With Credit Card Debt
These days, there are many consumers who simply cannot pay the high monthly minimum payments on their credit card debts. Their guilt about that will make their likely encounter with credit card debt collectors all the worse.
Some consumers in this situation realize they do not have to suffer this financial death by guilt.
The first step to overcoming that guilt, according to the Credit Card Debt Survival Guide, is disputing and denying the debt any credit card debt collector, other then the original creditor, calls about. Not admitting to an unsecured credit card debt and denying it is a legal strategy which can be compared to invoking the Fifth Amendment. It is not an indication of character. All this means is that the other side will have to prove that they have a case against you.
Credit card debt collectors must, according to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act:
1] Unless the consumer disputes the validity of the debt, the debt will be assumed to be valid by the debt collector and
2) Says that the consumer must dispute the debt, in writing, within thirty days of dispute.
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act also allows the consumer to notify the credit card debt collector in writing that the consumer refuses to pay the debt and that the consumer wishes the debt collector to cease further communication with the consumer with respect to the debt.
Then what happens, when the consumer disputes and denies a credit card debt and instructs collection communications to cease when a collection attempt is made by a credit card debt collector? Their job has been made harder. They must validate the debt with copies of original documents. That means going back to the credit card company for documents, then forwarding them to the consumer.
For an unsecured, unsigned credit card debt, the first thing a credit card debt collector must do is to get the consumer to admit to the debt; to take ownership of it, to admit “guilt.” That one exchange between the consumer and the credit card debt collector sets the tenor for the rest of the debt collection communications between the two. But, if the consumer denies and disputes the alleged debt and forbids further communications, the collector will likely move on to an easy target.
If you are seeking credit card debt relief, whether you can afford to pay or not, read Matt Highlander’s Credit Card Debt Survival Guide.