Is One of Your Creditors Violating the Fair Debt Collection Practice Act?

Consumers who owe money to private individuals or businesses often find themselves strained to the breaking point by their obligations. Historically, creditors have demonstrated the opposite of leniency with respect to their debtors. In medieval England, for instance, serious debtors were imprisoned for long stretches of time -- simply for owing more money than they could pay off efficiently.

To empower struggling consumers, the Federal government passed a piece of legislation called the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, also known as the FDCPA. This Act offers umbrella protections for indebted consumers against harassment, intimidation, and other forms of abuse at the hands of their creditors. It forbids creditors from making annoying phone calls, calling or visiting repeatedly, sending harassing letters, threatening physical violence, and otherwise acting inappropriately in the commission of collecting money.

The FDCPA does not apply to all creditors. Major credit card companies (such as American Express and Visa) and most banks are excluded from coverage by the FDCPA, since these entities secure debt themselves. However, collection agencies, attorneys, and other classes of creditors must abide by the FDCPA.

Violators can be compelled to pay consumers $1,000 in statutory damages as well as money to remunerate for legal fees and other costs and damages.

Despite the explicit language of the Fair Debt Collections Practice Act, a surprising number of predatory lenders, collection agencies, and other abusive proxies continue to violate the FDCPA at astonishing rates. Given the nation's current harried financial state, it's difficult for regulators to monitor all potential violations of the FDCPA. Moreover, most debtors are too focused fighting for their financial survival to launch counter offensives against overly aggressive collectors.

The good news is that it's relatively easy to fight back against harassing, threatening, or overtly abusive creditors with the assistance of an ace legal team, like the HOWARD | NASSIRI, firm. Whether a hospital bill collector has been sending you scathing notices, a collection agency for a credit card company has been buzzing your home or cell phone at all hour, or a creditor operating under a pseudonym has been threatening your family, fight back now by contacting HOWARD | NASSIRI, to defend your rights.