Collection Abuse

How to Answer a Debt Collector Phone Call – Alabama Consumer Credit Attorney Judson E Crump

April 9, 2014 by Attorney Judson E Crump Leave a Comment

My phone keeps ringing and ringing with calls from numbers I don’t recognize. I know they’re bill collectors trying to get me to pay some old credit card I used to have. I don’t really feel like dealing with this crap, but is can I get in trouble for not picking up?

NO. There is no penalty for choosing not to answer a phone call from a debt collector. The only communications from your creditors that you can get in trouble for not answering are lawsuits. And lawsuits cannot be served by telephone; they must be served in person or by mail. If you do get served with a lawsuit, you MUST answer it quickly. Read about how here.

But as a general rule, if it is important, it will be in writing. Period. So answering debt collector phone calls is entirely optional.

Personally, I recommend answering the phone call for two reasons: First, it might be a quick way to work out a debt settlement. Some debt collectors genuinely do want to try to work out a deal you can afford. Others are just assholes. The only way to know the difference is to pick up the phone.

Second, talking to a collector is the only way to get useful information, like who they are, where they are located, and what their corporate identity is – in other words, all the information you need in order to sue them for violating the FDCPA. Most FDCPA violations occur during telephone calls. They don’t usually write letters containing obvious legal violations like profanity or bogus threats to come take your furniture. Collection agency callers feel more free to be jerks over the telephone, and that’s when they’re most likely to

Judson’s Guide to Debt Collection Rights, Part IV: Validation and Vindication – Alabama Consumer Credit Attorney Judson E Crump

March 7, 2014 by Attorney Judson E Crump Leave a Comment

The Fourth Right: Validation

If you’ve ever gotten a collection letter, you’ve seen the following language:

Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which is federal law, we are required to notify you of the

following information and rights you have:

You have thirty (30) days from the day you receive this letter to dispute all or part of the debt. If you

notify us in writing that all or part of the debt is disputed, we will provide you with a verification of

the debt by mail. Unless you dispute all or part of the debt in writing within this period of time, we

will assume the debt is valid.

If the creditor named above is differentfrom the original creditor on this debt, we will provide you

with the name and address of the original creditor by mail if you request this in writing within thirty

(30) days from the date you receive this letter.

This is an attempt to collect a debt by a debt collector and any information we obtain will be used for

that purpose.

What does that mean? It means that if you have any suspicion whatsoever that you don’t owe that exact debt collector that exact amount of money on that exact account, then you should demand some sort of proof that these people have the right to be bothering you about some money. It is one of those things that, because it comes from a corporation that is trying to be intimidating, we just don’t really see it for what it is. But pretend for a moment that, instead of getting a letter from PRA Receivables Management, Inc. on behalf of CitiFinancial, it was a letter from some guy named Tom Smith, claiming to be collecting for your friend Buddy. You know that you borrowed some money from Buddy a while back, but you weren’t able to pay, so he eventually gave up on asking you for money. Then one day some guy named Tom Smith comes up to you as you are walking into work.

“You owe me $21,000.” He says.

“Uhh,” you say, “No I don’t. I don’t even know who you are. Get the $%&* out of my way before I call the cops.”

“Yes you do. You owe Buddy some money and Buddy told me I can have it if I can get it from you.”

“You must be joking. Even if I do owe Buddy money, that’s between Buddy and me. You’re insane if you think I’m just going to hand $21,000 over to some random guy.”

Tom: “OK, well how about $10,000. That’s a good deal. $10,000 for $21,000.”

You: “How do I know you’re not a scam artist? If I gave you $10,000, how do I know that Buddy won’t come after me for the money later?”

Tom: “You just have to trust me.”

You: “Screw you. If I ever see you again, I’m calling the cops. Seriously.”

That is how debt collection would work if it was done between real people. But, as we modern Americans have been conditioned to just expect crazy talk from faceless corporations, we somehow accept the exact same behavior. Somehow the fact that it is utterly ludicrous just doesn’t register the way it would if we were looking at a real person. So the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act has section 1692g.

15 U.S.C. 1692g states that if Tom is trying to get you to pay him the money you owe Buddy, then you have the right to demand some sort of proof. What sort of proof, exactly? Well, the courts disagree, but typically it means you can demand at least something from Buddy saying “This guy is legit; you can pay him and I’ll never come after you for the money again.”

So what do you do to exercise this right? Just send a letter. Tell them who you are, that “pursuant to 15 U.S.C. 1692g, I demand proof” that you have the right to collect every penny that you’re asking me for. And tell them that until you see such proof, you’re not even going to pick up the phone.

And you can do exactly that. By law, they are not allowed to continue collecting from you until they provide you with validation of the debt. This means that all the phone calls, emails, texts, and letters must stop until they’ve given you something in writing. The only catch is this: you have to do it within 30 days of first hearing from them. So don’t waste time! This is a powerful tool for stopping harassing phone calls dead in their tracks – without even having to hire a lawyer. If they do call you before you receive that proof, they’ve violated the FDCPA and you need to call an FDCPA lawyer.

Pissed at a debt collector? File a Complaint with the CFPB – Alabama Consumer Credit Attorney Judson E Crump

February 28, 2014 by Attorney Judson E Crump 1 Comment

If you’ve read any of my blog posts, you know that the number one way to fight back against debt collectors is to document their harassment and find a lawyer to file a lawsuit under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. But maybe you’re not angry enough to file a lawsuit. Maybe you don’t care about getting a bit of extra cash and you just want to give them some of the trouble they’ve been giving you. Fortunately, there are other options. One of them is to file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It’s easy. Just go to http://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaintdatabase/ and follow the directions there.

What does this do? Well, it’s kinda like calling your local DA, but its more effective because 1) the District Attorneys in Alabama don’t care about ordinary people getting ripped off and 2) the CFPB works across the country and gathers the complaints of thousands of people like yourself. They keep records of all the complaints they get about each collector and when they get a lot of them or find some really nasty behavior, they’ll shut them down. Or hit them with massive penalties that can sometimes end up with the collection agencies sending you a check for your trouble.

Judson’s Guide to Debt Collection Rights, Part III: Privacy and Disclosure of Personal Financial Information – Alabama Consumer Credit Attorney Judson E Crump

February 20, 2014 by Attorney Judson E Crump 1 Comment

The Third Right: Privacy of your Personal Information

The third right you have against bad debt collectors is privacy. Debt collectors are not allowed to use your personal information however they please. Simply put, they must keep your financial information a secret between you and them. They are only allowed to communicate with third parties in the following limited circumstances: to report to credit bureaus, to verify your location, and to comply with a court order. Even in those situations, they cannot say anything false and when verifying information, they cannot say anything about your debt. Here are some typical violations.

Telling Family About Your Debt – Debt Collectors cannot tell your family that you owe a debt, that you are in financial trouble, that they are collecting from you, or anything else that may communicate to anyone but you that you owe somebody money. Why? Because they know that spreading your financial bad news is embarrassing, and they want to use that embarrassment to pressure you into paying. This is one of the biggest violations I see by collection agencies in Alabama, and if it has happened to you, you need to take action. Now, there is one small exception to this rule: debt collectors are allowed to to talk to your spouse. This includes same-sex spouses if your state allows it, but it does NOT include boyfriends, girlfriends, baby-mamas, your parents (unless you’re a child, in which case they shouldn’t be calling you anyway), your brothers and sisters, or your children.

Leaving Collection Voicemails on the Family Phone – Because they aren’t allowed to communicate your personal information to anyone other than you, if they leave a message on a telephone that people other than you listen to, then they are breaking the law. Because any communication by a debt collector must also tell you who they are, any voicemail that the collector doesn’t affirmatively know to be heard only by you is probably illegal. Voicemails are probably my favorite type of FDCPA case because the bad collectors do you the favor of leaving the evidence right where you can get it. So if you are wondering, let me to tell you now: SAVE ALL YOUR VOICEMAILS FROM COLLECTORS. They could be worth money!!! Also save texts, emails, and letters.

Calling you at work – Debt collectors can only call you at work if your employer allows you to take personal phone calls on the job. I don’t know of a single employer who allows their employees to take personal phone calls while they’re working, so practically, the first time you get a phone call while you’re at work, you should tell the collection agency “I am not allowed to take personal calls at work. I work from 8 to 5. Bye.” If you tell a collector this ONCE, and they call you again while you’re at work, they’re breaking the law, and you need to call me. This rule applies even if they call your cell phone while you’re at work.

Telling your Employer or co-workers about your debt – If a collection agency calls your job and tells someone there that you owe money, they are breaking the law. In addition to the rule against calling you on the job, they can’t disclose your personal financial information to anyone but you – including your boss. Tiny exception: if they don’t know where you work, a debt collector can call your place of work ONCE to verify that you work there. During that phone call, they cannot say who they are or why they’re calling – they can only say “I just need to verify that Billy Smith is employed there.” If they say anything else, then they’re breaking the law.

<<Back Page 3 of 4 Next>>

Judson’s Guide to Debt Collection Rights, Part II: Debt Collectors Cannot Lie to You – Alabama Consumer Credit Attorney Judson E Crump

February 11, 2014 by Attorney Judson E Crump 5 Comments

The Second Right: Honesty

The second right you have when dealing with debt collectors is to hear the truth. And nothing else. This right is enshrined in 15 U.S.C. Sec. 1692e, which says “A debt collector may not use any false, deceptive, or misleading representation or means in connection with the collection of any debt.”

Sounds pretty clear, right? Well, as usual, the “truth” can sometimes be hard to define, so both the statute and the case law takes the analysis a step further and specifies all sorts of collection activities that have been found to be illegal. Without a doubt, this is the single most often violated aspect of the FDCPA. Why? Because if debt collectors told the truth, the whole truth, and only the truth, the typical collection call would sound something like this: “Hello, my name is John and I’m calling from NCEP, LLC about an account you previously may have had with CitiFinancial. We purchased this account for 5% of the face value, and we don’t have any documentation to prove the debt, but most consumers are scared of the legal system and completely unaware of their rights, so we make a lot of money by scaring folks like you into paying us money to make this go away. That said, we’d like to ask you to politely pay us some money. Please?”

The truth is dull and extremely disarming. So they withhold most of what they know about the debt, and instead focus on alarming buzzwords that are statistically likely to scare the average citizen into paying some money. Words like “lawsuit,” “court proceeding,” “wage garnishments,” “seizures,” and “legal action.”

Not surprisingly, they often say things which, at best, are suggestions bearing a twisted relation to reality, and at worst, are outright lies.

Here are some examples of the more common lies that debt collectors tell:

– Amount Owed. They cannot lie about the amount, legal status, or character of the debt. This means they cannot claim you owe more than you actually do – even by a penny! They cannot say they have a lien on your home or vehicle if they do not. They cannot say that the debt is a judgment if it is not.

– Identity. They cannot lie about who they are. They must disclose the name of their corporation. Some collection scammers will use a made up name or will give you some quick abbreviation like “NCC” and then start talking really fast in a very threatening manner. They can’t do that. If they don’t have a physical address, they are not real. A debt collector cannot pretend that it is a law firm, a government agency, the original creditor, or anything else besides exactly what it is.

– False threats. They cannot say they are going to sue you if they aren’t. If they say, “You have 5 days to pay us or we’ll take you to court,” and they don’t actually take you to court after 5 days pass, then they have broken the law. They cannot threaten to garnish your wages unless they already have a judgment. They cannot threaten to tell your family, to tell your boss, to report to the credit bureaus as a condition of payment. They cannot tell you that they’ve been authorized to settle for no less than $5,000 if they’ve actually been authorized to settle for $3,000. These rules apply to law firms as well – so if you’re dealing with a collection lawyer, they have to follow the law as well.

– False Credit Reporting. A debt collector cannot report false information to a credit bureau. So for instance, if a debt collector is asking you for $1,200 on a debt that you paid down to $900, and they are reporting a balance owed of $1,200 to the credit reporting agencies, then they are breaking the law in two ways: by asking you for more than you owe and by reporting false information to the credit bureaus.

– False Accusations. A collection agency cannot accuse you of committing a crime. They cannot say that you will go to jail if you don’t pay. You cannot go to jail for not paying a debt. Period.

<<Back Page 2 of 3 Next>>

Judson’s Guide to Debt Collection Rights, Part I: What Makes a Collection Call Illegal? – Alabama Consumer Credit Attorney Judson E Crump

February 10, 2014 by Attorney Judson E Crump 4 Comments

If you are being bothered by debt collectors, there is one very important thing you must know: YOU HAVE RIGHTS. If yours have been violated, call the law office of Judson E. Crump at 251.272.9148.

What sort of rights, specifically? Basically, you have four rights when dealing with debt collectors: 1) to be treated with dignity, 2) to be spoken to honestly, 3) to have your personal business kept private, and 4) to be informed about the nature of their claims against you. Now, the text of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (15 U.S.C. Sec. 1692) is much longer than that. Why? Because debt collectors have, over the years, tried hundreds of tricks to try and weasel out of their basic obligations and the law has evolved to try and keep up with them. As a general rule, if you think that a debt collector may be doing something illegal, they probably are. But people need to know as much about their rights as possible. As an attorney, one of my duties is to use my own knowledge and position to educate the public and help you understand your rights. What can debt collectors do? What can’t they do? And more importantly, what can you do about it?

So here is my definitive Guide to the Alabama Citizen’s Rights Against Bad Debt Collectors. It is a work in progress, and I will update it as needed to keep apace with new developments in the law. I invite my fellow attorneys to email me if they have suggestions or questions.

Because I practice in Alabama, where state law provides no real protections against bad debt collectors, this guide will focus on the federal laws that protect every American citizen and resident alien. Your state may have more protection, and if you aren’t sure, I always suggest that you call a good consumer protection attorney and find out. One thing to remember is that these rules do not apply to original lenders – only to people collecting on their behalf – collection agencies, law firms, attorneys, debt buyers, etc.

The Alabama Citizen’s Guide to Fair Debt Collection

Your First Right: Dignity

Just because you owe someone money does not make you a slave, a bad person, a second-class citizen, a sinner, or a whipping boy. Certainly, legitimate creditors have the right to make contact with you and to try to convince you to pay them. But that’s about it. The first protection that the law gives people in debt is the right to be accorded a basic degree of dignity: you cannot be abused, harassed, insulted, or offended. Specifically, they cannot:

– Use profanity. Period. If they are using curse words – any curse words – they’re crossing the line.

– Insult you. They cannot call you bad names or try to shame your sense of humanity. Examples: telling you that you’re a bad husband or wife, a bad example to your children, a moron, or a deadbeat.

– Make racial or religious comments. If they say that you’re not a Christian, or that “its typical” of “people like you” to not pay them, they’re breaking the law. They cannot say that God is going to be angry.

– Call too often – this requirement is a bit hazy, but there is a point where even legitimate collection calls cease to be attempts to communicate and become harassment. If they’re calling 10 times a day for a week, they’re probably breaking the law.

– Call you too early or too late. Specifically, they cannot call you before 9:00 AM or after 8:00 PM. If you have told them that you have young children who must be in bed at 7 pm, and they keep making the home phone ring after the kids are in bed, they’re crossing the line.

– Call you at any time or place that they know to be inconvenient. For instance, if you’ve told them that you are not allowed to take personal calls at work, and they do it again, they’re breaking the law.

– Call you after you have notified them in writing that you refuse to pay them.

– Call you after they know that you are represented by an attorney with respect to their debt.

Page 1 >>Next: Honesty

What protections does Alabama Law give you against Debt Collection Harrassment? – Alabama Consumer Credit Attorney Judson E Crump

January 31, 2014 by Attorney Judson E Crump Leave a Comment

Alabama law provides very few consumer protections against illegal debt collections. Unlike states like Florida that have their own fair debt collection statutes, Alabama has no specific statute that declares certain debt collection activities illegal. That does not mean that Alabama citizens are utterly without protection against unfair debt collection practices – federal laws like the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act cover the entire United States, and provides important rights to people who are facing collection harassment. But it does mean that you (and your attorney) will have to be diligent in preparing your strategy for dealing with bad debt collectors.

All that said, Alabama does have some useful law. Harassing communications is a criminal offense, and is committed when one Telephones another person and addresses to or about such other person any lewd or obscene words or language.” Ala. Code Sec. 13A-11-8(b). The fact that it is a crime does not mean that you can get the local DA to prosecute the collectors who are calling you, but it does mean that conduct that violates the criminal code can usually be used against the debt collectors in a civil suit.

Alabama also has the Alabama Deceptive Trade Practices Act. It is not a very broad law, but when it applies, you can take creditors and debt collectors to court for treble damages and attorney’s fees. One of the good things about the DTPA is that it applies not only to collectors collecting on behalf of others, but to the original creditor as well. Contrast this with the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which does not apply to original extenders of credit. The downside of the Alabama DTPA is that before you can sue someone for violating it, you have to write them a letter explaining what they’ve done wrong and give them the chance to make it right. I learned this lesson the hard way once, when suing a debt collector under the DTPA, the creditor’s attorney rightly answered that count of my complaint by pointing out that I had not given them the pre-lawsuit notice. (NOTE: In that case, I still had other counts that did succeed – I always try to attack with several weapons at once, in case some fail.)