Stop Bill Collectors - Know Your Rights

Part 2 - Credit Repair Tutorial

How to Stop Bill Collectors

In order to repair your credit the first thing you need to do is to stop the bill collectors to give you a little breathing room. In this section you are going to learn about your rights against unfair collection practices and how to apply them. The piece of legislation that we will be referring to in this chapter is the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

The other act pertains to how collection agencies and the credit bureaus can report information about you on your credit bureau. This little jewel is called the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). This act gives you specific rights to how collectors MUST report collection items on your credit report, and it was written with the consumer in mind.

1) You have the right NOT to be harassed at home and at work - This can be found in the FDCPA, section- 805. Communication in connection with debt collection. The collectors are not allowed to:

• Call you at any unusual time or place.(late at night early in the morning)
• Contact you in any way if you have obtained an attorney.
• Call you at work, if the employer prohibits or frowns on personal phone calls.
• Speak with relatives or friends concerning your debt, UNLESS it is being done in an attempt to locate you.

To assert these writes you need to send the collector a CERTIFIED letter with a RETURN RECIEPT, asking the collector to immediately stop these activities. If the collector doesn't, and you can prove it, you can alert the FTC, (Federal Trade Commission) and report them.

2) What the collection agency must do - Validation of debts, found in section 809. Validation of debts of the FCPD. Collection agencies must notify you, in writing, within 5 days, these two pieces of information. IF, they did not convey them to you orally. (This is why you hang up on collectors immediately until you are ready to talk to them on your terms)

• Provide the amount of the debt
• The name of the original creditor

3) What YOU must do within the first 30 days - You must dispute the debt within the first 30 days by sending the collection agency a dispute or Letter of validation request . Most people throw the collection notices away and never look at them again. This is what the collection agencies are hoping you will do. Your rights within the first 30 days are super-charged as opposed to dealing with older debts. If you send this letter in the first 30 days the collection agency MUST supply the following:

• (1) the amount of the debt;
• (2) the name of the ORIGINAL creditor to whom the debt is owed;
• (3) Provide a verification or copy of any judgment (if applicable);
• (4) Provide, reasonable proof, that you actually owe the debt;
• (5) Proof that you are licensed to collect debts in (insert name of your state)

This is HUGE! Most debts are bought and sold by collectors several times. Asking a collector to prove theses items is either impossible for them or it is not cost effective. Unless the debt is very large, most collection agencies will stop their collection efforts and move on to the next someone else. If they do this, you send this letter (after 30 days) to the collection agency, and this letter to ALL three credit bureaus.

4) Your Credit Bureau Rights - Your rights, as they pertain to how information is reported about on your credit bureau, can be found in the ( Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). This is a tedious, log-winded document.For this reason I am only going to list the most pertinent information below. If you have any questions after reading this chapter feel free to post them on our credit repair blog, and I will answer them as best I can. Also, any and all questions can be answered by reading the Fair Credit Protection Act

• If you are denied credit the credit bureaus must disclose your credit report to you upon request.
• Limit access to your information. Nobody, except a few government agencies, can check your credit without your permission.
• The credit bureaus MUST Investigate disputed information on your credit report,if you notify them, in writing, in a reasonable amount of time, i.e. 45 days.
• Credit bureaus MUST delete reported information about you if the information is incorrect or can no longer be verified. (HUGE)
• Credit bureaus must disclose your credit score upon request.
• Correct, comment and rectify all incorrect items that are the result of identity theft.
• Credit bureaus MUST supply you with a credit report once a year, in most states it's free, in others it costs a few bucks. The website can be found here.

In closing, I know I have missed something, if you still have questions please post them on our credit repair blog.

If you feel that the credit bureaus or collection agency's actions have violated your rights, you should seek the advice of an attorney. If you believe that the collection agencies have stepped outside of the guidelines, but not enough to sue,  you can report them to the Federal Trade Commission, the FTC can throw a nasty fine on them.