Fair Debt Collections Practices Act and Bankruptcy

In 1978 Congress passed the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) to regulate the debt collection industry. The purpose of the act is to eliminate abusive practices that creditors use to collect a debt from the consumer. The FDCPA will not remove your debt, but it does dictate how collection attempts are to be conducted.

Bankruptcy

If you are behind in your debt and you are unable to catch up without help, you may want to file bankruptcy to get the collection attempts to stop and give you time to figure out how to get your finances more manageable.

Debt collectors can not bully or harass you to collect on a debt. They can not threaten to call your family or boss and tell of your bad debt. They cannot threaten you with wage garnishments or call you multiple times in a day.

The FDCPA helps the consumer by:

• Creditors and collectors must treat you fairly and respectfully.
• Creditors and collectors may not use harassing, abusive, or threatening means to attempt collections.
• Creditors and collectors may not use false representation to collect debts.
• You must be informed about the debt and how much you owe.
• You may limit the ways and times that you can be contacted about your debts.
• You may seek damages against any creditor or third-party collection agencies if they violate your rights under FDCPA.

If you are receiving calls from debt collectors and you don’t have an answer for them as to how you will pay your debt, contact a Plano bankruptcy attorney. You could get financial relief by having your qualifying debt eliminated in as little as three to six months.