Dealing with financial challenges like debts and delays in payments can be struggling. However, you can expect someone to contact you if you are beginning late with your payments or if the debt you owe is growing. It can be annoying and stressful. The collector of debt has the legal right to contact you multiple times. However, there is a legal line that will represent harassment if being stepped over.
There are some things that you should never tolerate even though you are the one who owns the money, such as threats, obscene language, inappropriate types of contact, fake identity, and more. The best way to deal with these types of harassment is to contact an experienced debt collector harassment attorney that you can find if you visit this site. Also, here are the best ways to do if you are being harassed by a debt collector.
1. Send a Letter
If you are getting annoyed by constant phone calls and emails from a creditor who is requesting you to make the payment, the first thing that you can do is send them a letter where you will request them to stop calling you. However, this is often a short-term solution. Even if you report them to an official instance like FTC, you can expect they will find another way to continue calling you or sending mail.
You should also not be surprised by that since they will try to get you into a position where you will start repaying the money. In that matter, making the payment is the right thing to do to get rid of them. However, if you cannot do that, you will need to either provide a plan to discuss the debt with new terms or file bankruptcy.
The creditor will use different methods before the final step, which is filing a lawsuit against you. Also, you can expect to be reported to the financial instances, which will lower your score even more. You must find a way to repay the debt, but keep in mind that some methods of contacting should not be tolerated.
2. Save Everything You Have About the Harassment
You would have a legal right to sue the other side if they use inappropriate methods to seek money from you. Things like threatening, obscure language, and other inappropriate models will be enough for you to file a lawsuit against the creditor.
However, it won’t be easy to prove that if you don’t have clear evidence. Therefore, save recordings of all phone calls and copies of all mail sent to you from debt collectors. It won’t help you repay the loan faster or lower the money you have to pay, but at least you won’t have to deal with annoying phone calls anymore.
3. Report Them
There is an official instance called the Federal Trade Commission focused on customers’ rights. If you think that there is a line crossed with the methods the creditor is using to force you to make a payment, you can simply report them to this institution.
There is an online form where you will have to provide the name of the debt collector and creditor, more details about the communication between you, add some witnesses that can confirm your story, and send all additional materials you have to prove that you are being harassed.
There are some other solutions available where you can also use the report. For example, many creditors are hiring debt collector agencies to make the process easier. They are doing that, so they don’t have to deal with clients who are late with payments.
However, some of them are not aware of how these debt collector agencies are treating people. In that matter, you can send a report to a creditor where you will file a complaint about how you are being treated. Then, you can send the same complaint to the state agency if that does not work out.
4. File a Lawsuit
The most important thing is to be aware of your rights. If the debt collector gets too extreme with phone calls and inappropriate language, that will be enough for you to hire a lawyer and sue them. However, keep in mind that it won’t affect your debt. Still, if you prove that you faced any damage due to forced calls and mail, like stress, having to change the phone number, and more, you can expect to get proper compensation for that, along with peace, since they won’t be calling you again.
Remember that creditors are hiring debt collector agencies because of the higher efficiency. Also, these agencies are using various methods to motivate people to repay the debt faster since they are getting a percentage of that. Therefore, arguing with them is never a good option.
On the other hand, if you have financial struggles at the moment, the best way to deal with this situation is to try working out a new deal, like a repayment plan that will add more time, counselling, an additional loan to cover some fees from the creditor, and many other options. You can expect some flexibility from the other side since they will also try to avoid the court case since it can be too long and expensive.
Last Words
Being in a situation where you are not capable of returning your debt on time is struggling, and the last thing you need is to be additionally bullied by agencies that will use various methods to force you into repaying the money as fast as you can. You will have to deal with the loan, but there are some boundaries.
If the creditor is not respecting these boundaries, you will have a legal right to sue them and get proper compensation. In the end, the best way to deal with collector agencies is to work on a solution together. You can request a new model of repayment, and many other options that will prevent additional communication and potential lawsuits for both sides.
