How To Deal With Debt Collection Agencies ~ Part 1

I figured I should do a series on some things you can do to help with your fight against debt collectors.  I'm going to give you some credit repair tips for when you're writing your credit repair letters to debt collectors.  These are for the validation letters that you send to 3rd party collectors.  You want to give yourself the biggest advantage for deleting bad credit from your credit reports, so there are things that you should always look for when you are repairing your credit on your own.

These are just a couple extra tools to use.  There are 3 that I'm going to list for you.  The first is a list of states that have their own version of the FDCPA.  Remember that the FDCPA applies to 3rd party collectors and not original creditors.  But state versions include original creditors, which means that in addition to the FCBA (Fair Credit Billing Act), you can demand validation from both 3rd party collectors and original creditors if your state has their own set of laws that mirror the FDCPA. I'll try to give you all the names of the laws for the different states.

The second list I'm going to give you, is for each state's Statute of Limitations.  I'm only going to give the time limit for open accounts, which are basically credit cards.  Some states have longer time limits for written contracts like mortgages and auto installment loans.  I'm not going to cover those in this series because most of the bad credit that 3rd party collectors harass you over is credit card debt.  

Statute of Limitations is a great tool because if your alleged debt is Time-Barred, they cannot sue you and the alleged debt is non-collectible!  Now, remember, if these vultures sue you anyway, you absolutely MUST answer the lawsuit and show up  in court.  By showing the court that the alleged debt is time barred, the judge is required to dismiss the case, and in reality, the judge should dismiss it "with prejudice" which means that they can't come back at you for that alleged debt again.  I love when you beat them in court because it means they wasted a lot of money coming after you and failed!

The 3rd list I'm going to give you is a list of the states that also require 3rd party collectors to be licensed or bonded, or both, to do business in their states.  This is an important list because if the 3rd party debt collector that is coming after you is not licensed/bonded, or has been spanked with a suspension, their license/bond has expired or has been cancelled, that is great ammunition to make them hit the road.

Using these tools takes a little bit of research on your part, but it will be well worth it.  Especially when you look up your state's list for licensing and you see that they've had some sanctions placed against them.  Some of these scumbags have had sanctions, their license or bond suspended or cancelled, then they do another one, and you can see they've gotten in trouble again.  Its no wonder why people hate collection agencies so much and they have such a bad reputation.

Credit repair has been getting harder and harder lately. These debt collectors flagrantly break the law, refuse to validate and keep on attempting to collect, verify with credit bureaus, and give absolutely lame responses to validation letters, claiming they have fulfilled the "verification" and are resuming collection activity and reporting the dispute to the bureaus.  So spiteful!  

The credit bureaus aren't much better.  Sometimes I really doubt they even attempt to verify with the furnishers of the information, as is required of them.  They certainly have never bothered to send the proof of the verification when I've demanded it from them.  Its in their own set of laws, the FCRA, yet they seem to think that just like the lawlessness we see going on in the highest courts, how hellbent they are with their total disregard for the laws and the Constitution, the bureaus think they can do it too.  It is up to us to use every thing we can to fight them, remind them of their duty to uphold the laws, and delete when validation has not been produced and the verification has no documentation to back it up.

There's one more tool that I'm going to give you right now.  It is the contact information for the fairly new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).  This is the new enforcement agency created by the Frank-Dodd Act, Title X.  This agency can help enforce the consumer credit protection laws like the FDCPA and FCRA, when collection companies and credit bureaus don't want to comply with the law.  When I'm having obstinate collection agency or credit bureau issues, I threaten them in my letters, to report them to the CFPB and get enforcement that way.  They seem to finally be responding to that because they don't want to get spanked by them.  There are financial penalties that are levied against them when an investigation finds that they are violating the law.  

Here is the contact information for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau:

By Mail:

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

PO Box 4503

Iowa City, IA  52244

By Phone:

Between the hours of 8 am and 8 pm EST

(855) 411-2372

By Fax:

(855) 237-2392

To file a complaint online:

http://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/

So, look for Parts 2, 3, and 4 of this series this week.  I'll be putting up the posts every couple of days on this series of How To Deal With Debt Collection Agencies all week, as time allows.  I want to help you fight debt collectors, not give them your hard earned money.  Also remember, if repairing your credit is a bigger job than you want to take on all by yourself, contact me using the phone number and/or email I have listed up at the top right of this page.  I love fighting them and have helped many people achieve success with their credit repair.