What Debt Collectors Cannot Do

Guidelines have been put into effect to curtail debt collectors from harassing you. There are some things that they are forbidden to do. We will include them in this brief article. Creditors or people that collect debt on a creditor's behalf must not:

1. Threaten you with violence
2. Curse at you or use profane language
3. Publish your name on public forums
4. Continually harass you over the telephone
5. Give you with false statements
6. Lie can claim that they are an attorney and threaten suit
7. Lie and say that you can guilty of a crime
8. Lie about the amount of money that you owe
9. Threaten you with arrest if you don't pay them
10. Threaten to take, seize or wages or property unless they are legally able to do so.
11. Provide false or misleading information about you to the credit bureaus.
12. Collect more then you owe, unless your state allows it.
13. Call you collect and make you pay for the call
14. Require you to pay for telegrams sent by the collection agency
15. Collect debt by using postcards
16. Force you to make payment on debt that you do not owe

While creditors or debt collection companies are allowed to attempt to recover a debt, they do not have free reign to do so. They can not threaten violence, curse or use crass language with you or any third party when they are looking to collect. They also may not publish your name publicly except to the credit bureaus. They also may not lie about their identity and/or authority. Credit collectors can not threaten you will bodily harm or threaten to destroy any of your property. If the collection agencies do not plan to seize your wages or property and have taken the steps to actually do so, they may not threaten you with this action.

Just because you owe creditors money, this does not give them the right to reek havoc on your life. They have very specific guidelines that they must lawfully abide by. They are not allowed to harass you and call you over and over. They also can not call you overnight or extremely early in the morning. The only exception to this is if you work odd hours and have requested that the company only contacts you during hours outside of 8:00 am to 9:00 pm, which are the industry standard contact times. If you find that a creditor or debt collection company contacting you is breaking the law, you should report them.