| By :
Wendy Moyer
Although debt collectors do have the right to pursue your debts - the ones you legitimately owe - they don't have any right at all to be abusive. And there is no reason for you to put up with their abuse. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act defines the rights that you have as a consumer. Here are nine tactics that debt collectors are not supposed to use against you. 1. A debt collector cannot contact another person and tell them that you are in debt. 2. Debt collectors are not allowed to send you a letter whose envelope states that they are debt collectors. 3. Neither can they contact you via postcard. 4. If you tell a debt collector that an attorney represents you and give them the contact information for that attorney they have to contact the attorney instead of you. However, if the attorney doesn't respond in a reasonable amount of time they are once again permitted to contact you. 5. Debt collection agencies cannot use either profanity or abusive language when they contact a debtor. 6. They are not allowed to publish any lists that have the names of debtors on them. 7. Debt collectors are not permitted to claim that he or she is an attorney. 8. Generally debt collectors are not allowed to call you before nine am or after eight pm in your time zone. 9. If they are informed that your employer prohibits their employees from receiving communication from them then they are not permitted to try to contact you where you work. 10. A debt collection agency isn't allowed to hide its identity when they contact debtors. And they aren't allowed to try to trick the debtor into giving them information by using any kind of deceptive communication. If they violate any of these principles the debt collector could be in violation of federal laws. If that should happen and you feel that you are being illegally harassed by these debt collectors you can - and should - speak to an attorney. Keep in mind that debt collectors do have the legal right to try to collect money if you owe it. With that in mind - once you've absolutely verified that you owe the debt that they claim you owe, and you've verified that it is a legitimate collection agency, the best thing you can do is try to work out a comfortable payment plan with them. If you do come to an agreement with them make sure that you get everything that was agreed to in writing. Under no circumstances should you start making payments based only upon an oral agreement.
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