Collection practices
Debt collectors who work on commission may be highly motivated to convince debtors to pay the debt; These practices are highly regulated by The Fair Debt Collection Practices act, State laws to protect consumers, and the Office of Thrift Supervision, the Federal Trade Commission,and State regulatory agencies. Several Federal and State higher courts decisions have outlined several bad practices; Heintz vs. Jenkins,In re: Vinhee, Mcollough vs. Johnson, Rodenburg, Lauinger, Komarova v. Nation Credit Acceptance Inc.
In the US, the FDCPA prohibits calls to the debtor if the call will cost the debtor toll charges (in most other countries recipients of telephone calls are not charged, so this issue does not arise). The FDCPA also establishes what time of day calls can be made at, to whom and where. If a person answers, the call center may track statistics (e.g., the times and days when someone answers) in order to place calls at times when the debtor is more likely to be home; typically this is done by an automated dialing system between the times of 8am and 9pm local standard time. The collector may not use illegal and deceptive practices (for example, threatening the debtor with arrest or impersonating law enforcement). The collector cannot use obscene language and must inform the debtor of the nature of the call (collecting a debt) and their name and the name of the collection company when requested.
We are a debt relief agency. We help people file for bankruptcy relief under the Bankruptcy Code.
Please note that the following general information about collections is not intended to be legal advice. Always seek professional legal counsel. All individual circumstances are different and it is