he Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) provides ground rules and limitations for collection practices that you must know about. Unfortunately, a lot of these provisions are continuously being violated by debt collectors. Knowing your rights ensures that you benefit from fair debt collection. Here are some common debt collection violations:
1) Illegally informing third parties about your debt – Debt collectors can only share information about your debt to the following: your attorney, your spouse, your parents (if you’re a minor), the creditor, the creditor’s attorney and the credit-reporting agency. Debt collectors aren’t allowed to share your debt information to anyone else without your expressed consent.
2) Calling third parties to get your location information – This is not only a violation of your right to fair debt collection, it’s also a form of harassment to those receiving the nagging calls. The only time debt collectors can ask for your location information from third parties is when they have valid reasons to think that you have purposely given false information.
3) Making collection calls when you’re at work especially when your employer disapproves – This qualifies as harassment and is a blatant violation of your right to fair debt collection. Inform debt collectors if your employer doesn’t approve of debt collection calls in the workplace.
4) Failing to send you a written debt validation notice – Remember, you must receive a written validation notice that states your alleged debt, name of the creditor and a notice of your right to dispute the debt within 30 days.
5) Ignoring to address your verification request – Debt collectors aren’t allowed to continue collecting debt once you’ve sent them a debt verification request within 30 days of receiving the debt validation notice. In addition, debt collectors aren’t permitted to continue their collection until you receive the verification of your request.
6) Ignoring the cease communication notice – As part of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, debt collectors can only communicate with you once via mail after you’ve sent them a written request to cease communication. In that mail, the debt collector will either notify you that further collection efforts will be terminated, warn you about the possible actions that they can take or inform you of the legal actions they will take.
