The debt may still appear on your credit report, however, as most debts can remain on your credit report for seven years. If they have waited longer than this, they may have lost their right to sue you in court. Generally, a debt collector must bring an action to sue you on the debt within three years of when you made your last payment on the account. ( Click here for a letter you can use) What About Debt From a Long Time Ago? If your only source of income is one of these, you can write to the debt collector to tell them about your protected income. Alimony or support necessary for the support of you or your dependents (e.g. Can They Take My Benefits?Ĭertain forms of income are generally protected from collection by creditors, such as: But, if debt collectors call to ask you to pay after they receive this letter, they are violating the law. The debt collector can still sue you or report negative information to credit reporting agencies. This letter does not make the debt go away if you actually owe it. ( Click here for a letter you can use) After receiving your letter, a debt collector should not contact you again except to say there will be no further contact or to notify you that they intend to take some specific action. You can write a letter to the debt collector telling them to stop contacting you. But debt collectors do not have to stop all collection efforts while these later requests are pending. You can still write to dispute the debt 30 days after being contacted by the debt collector, and the debt collector must still verify the debt or identify the creditor. If, within 30 days of being first contacted by the debt collector, you write disputing the debt, or requesting the name and address of the original creditor, the debt collector must stop all collection efforts until they provide you with the information you sought: verifying the debt, or identifying the creditor. When debt collectors first contact you, they should tell you the amount that you owe, the name of the creditor, and that you have 30 days to dispute the debt in writing. What if I Don’t Owe the Money, or I’m Not Sure if I Owe it? tell others about your debt (except for your spouse, your parents if you are a minor, or your attorney).communicate with that person more than once unless the debt collector believes that the location information that person provided was wrong or incomplete, and that person now has more complete and accurate information and.they cannot pretend to be someone else, like a police officer.Ĭontacts with Neighbors, Family or Friendsĭebt collectors can contact other people if they are trying to locate you.they cannot say they are going to sue you unless they plan to do it and.threaten you with harm, threaten to arrest you, or use obscene or abusive language.call you repeatedly with the intent to harass you.call your workplace if they know, or have a reason to know, that you cannot receive calls at work.or after 9 p.m., unless you tell them that’s when you would like to speak to them When they call you, they must identify themselves as debt collectors. Can they do that? Callsĭebt collectors can call you to talk to you about your debt. You can also report problematic collection practices to the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia. Under these laws, there are steps that you can take to limit a debt collector’s contact with you or to learn more about the debt collector’s claim. Fortunately, there are federal and District of Columbia laws that protect consumers and prohibit debt collectors from using certain practices that may be abusive, unfair, or deceptive to consumers. In other cases, consumers are harassed to repay a debt that isn’t even theirs. Unfortunately, many consumers have incurred debts they have difficulty repaying. That same debt collector has left messages with your family, at your workplace, and keeps calling you early in the morning and late at night. A roommate tells you a debt collector called asking for you.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |