Michigan Collections Harassment Lawyers

You can also sue the debt collector for violations of the FDCPA. If you sue under the FDCPA and win, the debt collector must generally pay your attorney’s fees and may also have to pay you damages.

No misrepresentations: The FDCPA also says debt collectors can’t use false, deceptive, or misleading practices. This includes misrepresentations about the debt, including:

• The amount owed
• That the person is an attorney if they are not
• False threats to have you arrested
• Threats to do things that cannot legally be done
• Threats to do things that the debt collector has no intention of doing

It is a good idea to keep a file of all letters or documents a debt collector sends you and copies of anything you send to a debt collector. Also, write down dates and times of conversations along with notes about what you discussed. These records can help you if you have a dispute with a debt collector, meet with a lawyer, or go to court.

On the creditor side of the industry, many consumers have been hassled and harassed by overzealous creditors and their agents attempting to collect late or overdue bills.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), regulates the behavior of debt collectors and prohibits many abuses which have been used on consumers to collect debt.

The most important concept to understand about the FDCPA is that it regulates debt collectors, not creditors. If you are being harassed by a creditor, please refer to the Michigan Regulation of Collections Practices Act. For example, if a finance company constantly harasses you about late payments, the FDCPA has no power to curb their behavior or punish them. They are a creditor, not a debt collector. If the finance company hires a debt collection firm to collect a debt from you and that firm overreaches in its collection methods, that firm may be liable under the FDCPA.

Generally, the FDCPA applies to those who collect debts owed to creditors as their main business. These are mainly consumer debts for personal, family, and household uses, such as auto loans, mortgages, credit cards, and doctor bills. Here is a short list of some of the abuses which are specifically forbidden by the FDCPA:

Contacting you after you’ve written a letter to the collection agency telling them to stop writing, except to notify you if the debt collector or creditor intends to take some action. Contacting your friends, relatives, employer, or other acquaintances to find out where you live or work or to tell these people that you owe money;

Threatening harm to you, threatening your reputation, using profane language, or contacting you repeatedly an unreasonable amount of times;

Contacting you at unreasonable times, for example, before 8:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m., or contacting you at your place of employment if you tell them that your employer disapproves of the contact.

Making false statements, including statements that you may be arrested, that money will be deducted from your paycheck, or that they will sue you unless the collection agency or creditor actually intends to do so and it is legal to proceed as such.

The bottom line is that you should make a conscious effort to pay your bills on time and contact the creditor when a payment will be late or if you wish to work out some kind of arrangement to temporarily suspend payments because of an unforeseen hardship.

Collecting and reporting credit histories is a multi-billion dollar business. The three national credit reporting agencies – Trans-Union, Experian, and Equifax, collect, maintain, modify, and update information on over 180 million people. They then sell this information, along with your credit rating score, to organizations such as retailers, banks, insurance companies, and even employers.

Other information gathered may include your mortgage payment records and public records such as court judgments, tax liens, foreclosures, and bankruptcies. They do not include your income or monthly rent payments, utilities, or doctor bills.

Virtually every time you fill out a credit application, apply for a loan or various types of insurance, or even fill out an application for employment, your credit history as a consumer for the last seven years is sold to that organization. Despite the obvious privacy issues involved with this type of reporting, our government has deemed this process to be necessary and legal.

However, our government has enacted laws to assist consumers and prevent debt collectors and credit reporting agencies from using unfair reporting practices and undertaking other abuses.