There is little or no legal weight to a phone call from a credit card debt collector. Anyone can say anything and get away with it. Debt collectors use that to their full advantage. The telephone is their weapon of choice. Once things get reduced to writing, they become toothless.
Written communications from and to a credit card debt collector are what matter in court. If a consumer is writing to a debt collector it should always be certified return receipt requested.
Over the telephone credit card debt collectors lie a great deal. These are some of those lies:
1. They scare you by claiming that a lawsuit has been filed against you in your local court and that a complaint is on its way.
2. They advise you to make an affordable token payment because they know that if you do this then you are documenting admission to the debt.
3. They tell you you may be arrested, knowing no one can be arrested for a civil matter.
4. They tell you money will be taken from your weekly earnings.
5. They threaten to have your bank account seized.
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is violated by each of these threats.
Credit card debt collectors use the phone attempting to get personal details such as your bank account number, Social Security number, and work number, as well as getting you to confirm your credit card number and admit to the debt in question. The Credit Card Debt Survival Guide advises that you should never share any personal information with people on the telephone, as they could be anyone, and that you should always dispute and deny the debt to which they are referring and hang up the phone.
Curiosity should be the only reason for taking one of these calls. If a credit card debt collector calls out of the cold, let them tell you what debt they are calling about, then tell them you have received no written notice from them about the debt and hang up.
You should be aware that as a consumer the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act gives you the right to write to the debt collector to instruct them to stop telephoning you. If they continue, they are breaking the law and are liable to a $1000 penalty for each call made. Consumers are advised to log each phone call to interest a specialist consumer rights attorney in suing the debt collector on a contingency fee basis.
Matt Highlander has researched the legal nonpayment strategies for dealing with credit card debt. If you cannot afford to pay, read his Credit Card Debt Survival Guide
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