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Occasionally the normal man or woman has had to face a collector of some kind calling to determine when the individual intends to repay the overdue bill. We are greeted with the well known phrase “First off I need to notify you this call might be recorded and that this call is with the objective of collecting a debt and any specifics provided will be used for that intent”. This virtually makes you feel you’re having your Miranda Rights being recited to you. Quite often just viewing the tell tale “Unavailable” show up on the caller id screed can send shivers up an individual's spine.

Imagine having many different collection agencies calling you day and night. These debt collectors can regularly become abusive and rude on the phone, threatening all kind of outrageous things just to scare you into paying whatever you owe back. From time to time they haunt you like that bad burrito you ate at midnight, dialling at all hours of the day and evening sometimes ten or even more times daily. Calling your place of work hunting you down like a blood hound.

I've heard horror stories of credit card companies calling neighbors, friends, and family strong arming them into giving out your personal information. Oftentimes stating to them that you will be in a lot of legal trouble and if they do not get hold of you immediately you will be thrown in prison or even worse. Quite a few collection companies disguise themsleves under the disguise of a legal name or law firm letter head believing that the threat of a law suit brings you to your knees.

So the question comes to mind, why? In many cases these collection companies will work on some kind of incentive oriented program or commission dependant upon the amount of debt they are able to retrieve for their clients, the credit card companies. Now I am not praoclaiming that each and every collection company stoops to that level of harassment but I will say there presently exists less reputable companies out there than you will discover Mafia like ones.

These below the belt companies victimize people’s sparse expertise in the debt laws and what is and is not legal. They know that there are many of people who have very limited knowledge about law but have heard tales true or not of people being raked over the coals due to bad debt. They monopolize on this and supply those half truths to sow the seed of fear and concern in the men and women they mistreat on the phone.

How many times have you read about a collector calling and litterly shouting and screaming at some unsuspecting person in an attempt to brow beat them into paying back a debt which may be perhaps up to three years old? Or, they use obscene vocabulary to a individual who may not even be aware that they still owed a debt. Cases similar to these have popped up innumerable times and carry on growing as our economic crisis becomes worse and worse.

It is for these very causes that numerous people opt to not deal with a increasing debt issue. The apprehension of having to cope with an angry collection company simply puts a bad taste in their mouth when exploring the various debt relief options to choose from. Since a number of options that are offered to individuals are hardship programs, many individuals choose to simply continue to pay their monthly minimums rather then face the wrath of the phone tyrants.

What many individuals might not know is that there's actually a federal law executed to guard their rights against unfair collection practices. This law is named the Fair Debt and Collection Practices Act also referred to as the FDCPA. This law describes exactly what a collection company can and cannot do when it comes to attempting to collect on a debt. Violations to that act can lead to penalties and offers the individual the ability to sue the collector for money damages. However, the problem at hand is that often most people are not acquainted enough with the law to be familiar with when a company has actually violated our legal rights. Some of us have attempted to become the warriors and demanded that these creditors stop calling spewing out that we have laws out there ant that they are prohibited to violate them. But these collectors know that you are only scratching the surface and generally speaking do not truly fully grasp the laws.

There are times that they may possibly inform you of that they're not violating any laws and because you owe this debt that provides them the right to phone and do what's needed to obtain repayment for this debt. They're taking the gamble that you like the majority of us pay attention to authority and will take what they have to say as the truth since they should know, they are of course in the business of collecting debt and no company would willingly break the law.

The FDCPA is a very long document broken up into various sections but in a nut shell here are common violations collection agencies make;

1.Calling the customer's place of employment as soon as the debt collector knows the consumer's employer prohibits calls or the consumer requests the debt collector not to call at work anymore.

2.Threatening that nonpayment will result in imprisonment, garnishment, and/or liens if the debt collector is not a lawyer

3.Calling the consumer's neighbors, friends, family members, ect. if the debt collector currently understands how to contact the customer. (They are only allowed to contact third parties to find the consumer's contact information.)

4.Revealing to friends, loved ones, etc. the consumer owes a debt.

5.Harassing, oppressing, insulting or verbally abusing the customer (this is VERY broad.)

6.Threatening to sue when the debt collector isn't a lawyer/law firm.

Here is where working with a debt settlement law firm to assist you with coping with your debt may be of great benefit to you. A national law firm can help you ensure any collection agencies aren't breaking federal law when collecting debts. If while you are within their program any collection agencies begin to harass you, then you can certainly sue them and the law firm would handle the case for free and likely be capable of recover money for you.

This is simply one of countless reasons why it is very important to make sure that you are looking for a debt relief program which is legal and you are going about this in the right way. Only a law firm can give you legal advice, and only a law firm can legally represent you to your credit card companies and their lawyers for the purpose of negotiating your credit card debt. For everybody who is behind on your payments and you are also being harassed by collection agencies, then I urge you to speak to an attorney who concentrates on debt resolutions and collection harassment, to go over with you all of your options.

Tags: collection calls, collection harassment, creditor harassment, debt settlement law firm