Fair Debt Collection Practices Act – FDCPA Lawyers -Instant Settle Consultants

Are you being inappropriately harassed by your creditors?  Have you consulted an experienced FDCPA lawyer?

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, or FDCPA, was enacted in 1978 to protect consumers from harassment over unpaid debt.  The FDCPA is a set of rules that debt collectors must follow while attempting to collect a debt from a consumer.  The FDCPA also provides legal recourse for those harassed by debt collectors.

FDCA prohibits creditors from engaging in the following activities:

Communications

  • Call you before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. local time
  • Call you on a Sunday
  • Contact your relatives, friends, or neighbors about the money you owe in order to embarrass you into paying your debts.  (See exception below)
  • Call you directly if they know or should have known that you are represented by counsel
  • Contact you at work if the debt collector knows that your employer does not want you to be contacted there during working hours.
  • Get in touch with your employer about a debt you owe (unless child support)

Exception

Debt collectors are allowed to contact third parties (relatives, friends, neighbors, employers) for the limited purpose of finding information about your whereabouts. 

Harassment

  • Use the threat of violence or criminal behavior
  • Use obscene or offensive language
  • Contact you repeatedly with intent to annoy, abuse or harass
  • Publish your name in a list of consumers that allegedly refuse to pay debts

False or Misleading Representations

Contact your relatives, friends, or neighbors about the money you owe in order to embarrass you into paying your debts.  (See exception below)

  • Contact your relatives, friends, or neighbors about the money you owe in order to embarrass you into paying your debts.  (See exception below)
  • Falsely represent the character, status or amount of the debt.
  • Claim or imply to be a government agency (e.g. law enforcement)
  • Claim to be an attorney
  • Imply or state that failure to pay will result in arrest and/or seizure of property
  • Threaten to take legal action that isn’t intended or can’t be taken
  • Communicate false credit information
  • Deliver a document that looks like it’s from a court or attorney if it is not from a court and/or attorney.

Unfair Practices

  • Add interest, fees, or charges not authorized in the original agreement or by state law
  • Communicate with you about your debt by using a postcard or an envelope that clearly indicates that a debt collector sent it.
  • Deposit a post-dated check you have given them before the date on the check.
  • Threaten to seize and or repossess your property when they have no right to do so.

For more information please contact an experienced FDCPA lawyer at Instant Settle Consultants.