Get Collection Agencies Off Your Back
Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, you have the right to tell a collection agency that you will not honor its collection attempts, and they no longer have the right to contact you for settling the debt. Additionally, let your creditor know that they are to cease all communications with you. By law, that collection agency must stop contacting you except for the following reasons:
- To tell you that collection efforts against you have stopped, or The creditor/collection agency will invoke a specific action against you, such as suing you.
If a collection agent contacts you with intent on invoking action against you, it must truly plan to do so. The collection agent cannot write and tell you “We’re going to sue you” and then just drop the matter. If you believe that this collection attempt is not valid or if you need to buy some additional time from the collection agency, the collection agency must send you a “validation notice” when it first contact you. The validation notice should include the following:
- The amount of the debt.
- The name of the original creditor.
- That you have 30 days after receiving the letter to dispute the debt.
If you don’t dispute the debt or any part of it, the agency will assume that the debt is valid. Additionally, the agency will send you a letter verifying the debt and will send the name of the original creditor should you request it. Upon receiving the validation notice you can again buy some time by sending the agency a written request-do not call-for any of the following information:
- The name and address of the original creditor.
- Verification of the existence and amount of the debt.
- Verification of the existence and the amount of the judgment on which the claim is based.
If you request any of the aforementioned information, the agency must stop all efforts to collect the debt, until it mails you the requested information.