Tuesday, August 23, 2005

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

Declaration Of Purpose:

An abundant evidence of the use of abusive, deceptive, and
unfair credit collection practices by many debt collectors led
to the declaration of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
The purpose of the Act, approved in September 1977, was to
eliminate abusive debt collection practices by debt collectors
and to promote consistent state action to protect consumers
against debt collection abuses and invasions of individual
privacy.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act laid down specific
guidelines pertaining to the following procedures:

1. Acquisition Of Information [Sec 804]
Any debt collector seeking to acquire location information of a
consumer would identify himself and his purpose correctly and if
the need arises also disclose his employer. At no point during
the inquiry process shall the collector state or imply that a
consumer owes any debt, as this shall amount to invasion of
individual privacy. Once the enquiry process has been
completed, any correspondence thereafter shall be with the
attorney of the said consumer only.

2. Communication With the Consumer [Sec 805]
The debt collector may not communicate with the consumer at any
such place or time, which may be known to be inconvenient to the
consumer. If the collector has information that an attorney
represents the consumer, then any communication with the
consumer should be done only if the attorney fails to respond
to the collector's communication.

3. Abuse Or Harassment Of The Consumer [Sec 806]
A debt collector may not engage in any conduct the natural
consequence of which is to harass, oppress, or abuse any person
in connection with the collection of a debt. A collector may not
resort to acts of violence or threats thereof in order to coerce
the consumer into obliging to the collector.

4. Misrepresentation For Debt Collection [Sec 807]
A debt collector may not use any false, deceptive, or
misleading representation or means in connection with the
collection of any debt. The debt collector may not represent or
in any way implicate that nonpayment of the debt will result in
the arrest or imprisonment of any person or the seizure,
attachment or sale of any property of any person unless such
action is lawful and the debt collector or creditor intends to
take such action.

5. Debt Validation [Sec 809]
Within five days after the initial communication with a
consumer, the debt collector shall send the consumer a written
notice containing the exact amount of debt, the name of the
creditor and the due date of payment.

6. Civil Liability [Sec 813]
Any debt collector who fails to comply with any provision of
this act is liable to such person in an amount equal to the
extent of actual damage to the consumer and may be liable to
pay the consumer the defendant attorney's fees reasonable in
relation to the work expended and costs.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act provides guidelines for
all kinds of debt collection. For all debt collectors, be
in-house or collection agencies, it is must to understand the
act and stay within the legally permitted boundaries. The Fair
Debt Collection Practices Act has enough provisions for
collection agencies and departments to help them get the dues
from the debtors legally.


About The Author: Free collection agency services information
at http://www.collectionagencyservices.net
=============================================================

Debt Elimination Programs Reviews, Articles And Tips On Complete Debt Elimination Get Out Of Debt, Using Only The Money You Already Earn And Not A Penny More! On Any Income!

The secrets of getting out of Debt

Debt

Many Americans are just floating in debt. Are
you 1 of those people? With a home mortgage loan,
a car loan, store cards and credit cards? If you are
then you are probably struggling every month to produce
your minimum repayments, let alone get ahead with
any kind of savings project. While your mortgage and
your car loan are positive steps in the right direction
after all you are building stock in wonderful firm assets, it
is wallmart cards and credit cards which will give you
the virtually all trouble.

Credit debt is a financial epidemic that infects hundreds to
thousands
of people around the globe each year. Rather than live
every day to its fullest, individuals suffering from credit
card debt are forced to pay off their expenses from the
past. Does this sound familiar? If so, then let me
encourage you to attack those credit cards and run
living debt-free! But it can sound like a
wonderful idea, living debt-free is much simpler said
than done. This is especially true for individuals who
are suffocating under thousands of dollars of credit
debt. Unfortunately, there isn't a "quick fix" guide for
credit card debt.

The hardest portion about eliminating credit obligations is
getting rid of the cards. This is especially true for
people who are about dependent on them. Let
me assure you, however, that you are never going to
get rid of your debt if you carry on to spend. So pick
1 (and only one) to reserve for emergencies only,
get out the scissors and chop the others to pieces.
And what if you happen to be already in trouble? What can
you
do to reduce and even eliminate your credit card debt?
There are both keys choices to doing this. The 1st is
taking out a debt consolidation loan. This is where you
take the balances of your great cards and
smaller finance loans and roll them into 1 loan or even
card. This minimizes your monthly repayments however
also minimizes the amount of interest that you are
incurring every month because you are incurring
interest only on 1 great balance rather than
many.

The 2nd is taking out a Debt Agreement with your
creditor. This is a elementary strategy that allows you to
negotiate a binding payment compromise with the
corporations you owe great monies to. This is an
alterative step before filing for bankruptcy and should
be considered as an extreme measure. It's vital
to note however that the debt agreement proposal will
be accepted or even rejected by creditors. A few examples
of the kinds of arrangements that are put in place are:
- Payment of less than the full amount of all or even any of
the debtor's debts,
- A moratorium on payment of debts for a time of
time to give the debtor time to gather funds,
- A transfer of property from the debtor to the creditor
as full or even section payment, and
- Periodic payments of numbers out of the debtor's
income to creditors either collectively or even individually.


padrone dibitoz is the owner of
AFS Debt
which is a premier resource for debt information.
for more information, go to http://www.afsdebt.com


Debt Elimination Programs Reviews, Articles And Tips On Complete Debt Elimination Get Out Of Debt, Using Only The Money You Already Earn And Not A Penny More! On Any Income!