|
Dear Attorney,
I am a soldier who has lived at Fort Drum for the past two
years. A few years prior to coming into the military I
purchased a Dodge Neon and was unable to make payments so the
bank repossessed my car. Last week I receive a letter from
this place saying that I owe them money for a car the bank
repossessed years ago. This place is now calling me 3 and
4 times a day threatening to call my commander or sue me for
twice the amount if I don’t pay them $6,000.00. Can you
help me?
Drowning in Debt
Dear Drowning,
It appears that you are being contacted by a collection agency.
A collection agency is an agency who is not the creditor but
they tries to collect a debt on behalf of the creditor.
There are special rules called the Fair Debt Collection
Practices Act which regulates how these agencies collect debt.
Before I address how to handle your particular problem, it is
helpful if you know what protections are provided in the Act.
Here is a list of some of them:
1.
Collection agencies can not harass or be abusive or obscene.
2.
Collection agencies can not use the telephone to harass you by
excessive ringing or excessive calling.
3.
Collection agencies may not threaten you with actions they can
not legally take or have no intention of taking.
4.
Collection agencies can not contact you before 8:00 a.m. or
after 9:00 p.m.
5.
Collection agencies can not contact other people about your debt
without your permission (with the exception of your spouse.)
However, they can contact these parties in an attempt to reach
you.
6.
Collection agencies must honor any rules set up by your work
place as to weather they can contact you at work.
Always keep these protections in mind but also remember as a
soldier you are authorized to utilize the Legal Assistance
Program if you need help. It is important to contact Legal
Assistance early as you may loose some of your rights as time
goes on.
Now to deal with your particular problem, the first thing you
should always do when contacted by a collection agency is have
them verify the debt. You have thirty days to do this
after the collection agency first contacts you and this must be
in writing. The collection agency is required by law to
verify your debt and this protects you in two ways. First
if there was a billing error, computer error or clerical error
validation of the debt should catch this. Second, this
will ensures that the debt collector is legitimate and not
someone that was able to hack into your financial records.
In your case with the automobile, this verification may also
help you determine how the car was sold and for how much.
This is important to determine if you have a claim that the sale
of the car was improper and you should not be held liable for
the uncollected amount. Once verification is requested, the
debt collector is not allowed to contact you until verification
is provided.
The next step is to take control of the situation. If the
collection agency is calling you 3 and 4 times a day, keep a log
for every time they call and write down the date and time they
called. You also want to record what you talked about and
if they were rude, abusive or threatening. Fell free to
make them aware of the fact that you know your rights under the
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act stating it is not in their
interest to violate them. Additionally, if the collection
agency is being rude or abusive you can hang up on them.
Rude and abusive behavior is illegal and you do not need to put
up with it. When the agency calls back ask to speak to
their manager and tell the manager the agent was being abusive
or rude and you would like to deal with someone else. If that
does not work there are more drastic measures you can take but I
recommend contacting a Legal Assistance Attorney. Once you
involve an attorney the collection agency must use the attorney
to contact you.
It appears that your collection agency has resorted to using
threats, ones that they can’t legally back up. They cannot
contact anyone in you chain of command in an attempt to collect
a debt but remember, this does not apply to the actual creditor
so be sure you know the difference.
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is often violated.
Taking note of these violations can help if your case goes to
court. The court can award you as much as one thousand
dollars simply because the collection agency violated the act.
Lastly, the law allows you to terminate contact with the debt
collector. This must be done in writing and will force the
collection agencies to use other means to proceed against you.
This includes taking you to court. The agency can still
contact you to inform you what action it is taking or that it is
terminating contact with you but it will end all other contact.
Termination of contact with a collection agency should be used
with caution if they are pursuing a legitimate debt. This
termination may cause them to pursue the matter in court which
could cost you more in the long run.
|
