To Eliminate Credit Card Debt Don’t Take Phone Calls from Debt Collectors
January 25, 2010 by Matthew Highlander
Filed under Credit Card
There is little legal weight to what someone says over the telephone. The caller can say what they like with impunity. And that is why debt collectors use the telephone as their main weapon. When exchanges with consumers are done in writing, debt collectors lose their effectiveness and consumers begin to eliminate credit card debt.
Written communications from and to a credit card debt collector are what matter in court. If a consumer is writing to a debt collector it should always be certified return receipt requested.
There is a saying in online consumer forums, 100 percent of debt collectors tell lies 100 percent of the time. Here are some examples of those lies.
1. They claim over the telephone that a lawsuit has been filed against you in your local court, and that the summons is on its way to you. This is an awful, scary lie.
2. They advise you to make an affordable token payment because they know that if you do this then you are documenting admission to the debt.
3. They tell you you may be arrested, knowing no one can be arrested for a civil matter.
4. They threaten to have your wages garnished.
5. They tell you they can seize your bank account.
Each of these lies is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
These threats are attempts to get you to confirm that the debt is yours. The credit card debt collector wants to confirm the credit card number in question and get other personal information. They want to know your Social Security number, the phone number of your work place and even information about your bank account. The Credit Card Debt Survival Guide advises you to eliminate credit card debt by disputing the debt and denying it over the phone to the credit card debt collector. Remember that the person on the other end of the line unknown to you. Tell them you do not share personal information over the phone with people unknown to you and then hang up.
If you end up taking a call from a credit card debt collector, you should only stay on long enough to find out what debt they are telephoning about. Before hanging up, advise them that you need written notice of this debt and that you will not talk about it over the phone.
Fortunately, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act allows you to write to the debt collector instructing them to stop all collection calls. Once this has happened, any calls are subject to a $1000 penalty because they then violate the law. You can keep a log of every call and then contact a consumer rights attorney about suing the debt collector, fee paid on the contingency of winning.
Matt Highlander researched the Credit Card Debt Survival Guide. Learn about debt settlement and legal nonpayment strategies to eliminate credit card debt. Matt Highlander is a contributing writer. www.credit-card-debt-survival.com
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