Debt settlement laws refer to the legal structure in place designed to safeguard the constitutional rights of debtors in relation to their creditors. Essentially, what debt settlement laws come down to is this: you have the right to negotiate a settlement of your debt with your creditors, or to hire someone to do it for you. Your creditors have the right to harass you until you tell them, in writing to stop.
One of the biggest factors preventing people from exercising and understanding their rights is simply anxiety and fear. For some, having the phone ring off the hook all day can be traumatizing, and lead to a certain level of emotional paralysis that prevents them from taking effective action in their own best interest. For this reason, understanding your rights in regards to debt settlement and the related laws can empower you, end your anxiety, and provide the psychological and emotional breathing room so essential towards making rational, reasoned decisions in your best interest, rather than under the duress of creditor-induced stress and anxiety.
Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, debt collectors can begin contacting and harassing you as soon as you fall behind. This can take the form of endless phone calls, visits to your house, calls to your relatives, calls to your employer, or waiting outside your work place to accost you in person, in front of your co-workers. Many debt collectors lack any shame or scruples what-so-ever, and will gladly humiliate their own mother if they think it will cause her to fork over her grocery money to pay on a credit card. They may also contact third parties in order to confirm your phone number, place of employment, and address – but they are only allowed to so once.
After first contacting you in regards to an alleged debt, collectors have five days to follow up with a written statement indicating the amount owed, who it is owed to, and what to do if you feel this debt is in error. If, in fact, the debt is an error, the collector cannot contact you again once you have written them informing them that the debt is an mistake. Unless they can prove otherwise, they will have to cease contacting you regarding this debt. But if the debt is valid, then until you tell them to stop, they can harass you pretty much incessantly, between the hours of 8 am to 9 pm.
Fortunately, debt settlement laws are quite clear in this matter: you don't have to tolerate creditor harassment for a single minute. Under the same Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, you are entitled to tell them you don't wish to be bothered by them. As soon as you do so, they are required by law to stop, or you can, quite literally, sue them for harassment – for a lot. However, you do need to take proactive action in the form of writing to each of your creditors, or to any collectors they have turned your account over to, and tell them not to contact you any more.
While this won't eliminate the debt, it will eliminate the stress and anxiety caused by their harassing you. Debt settlement laws favor debtors against their creditors immensely, but only if you know your rights and execute them. Once you have written your creditors or the collectors, they may not contact you again except to inform you they no longer be contacting you in reference to your debt. In other words, they can only harass you if you allow them to.
One of the biggest factors preventing people from exercising and understanding their rights is simply anxiety and fear. For some, having the phone ring off the hook all day can be traumatizing, and lead to a certain level of emotional paralysis that prevents them from taking effective action in their own best interest. For this reason, understanding your rights in regards to debt settlement and the related laws can empower you, end your anxiety, and provide the psychological and emotional breathing room so essential towards making rational, reasoned decisions in your best interest, rather than under the duress of creditor-induced stress and anxiety.
Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, debt collectors can begin contacting and harassing you as soon as you fall behind. This can take the form of endless phone calls, visits to your house, calls to your relatives, calls to your employer, or waiting outside your work place to accost you in person, in front of your co-workers. Many debt collectors lack any shame or scruples what-so-ever, and will gladly humiliate their own mother if they think it will cause her to fork over her grocery money to pay on a credit card. They may also contact third parties in order to confirm your phone number, place of employment, and address – but they are only allowed to so once.
After first contacting you in regards to an alleged debt, collectors have five days to follow up with a written statement indicating the amount owed, who it is owed to, and what to do if you feel this debt is in error. If, in fact, the debt is an error, the collector cannot contact you again once you have written them informing them that the debt is an mistake. Unless they can prove otherwise, they will have to cease contacting you regarding this debt. But if the debt is valid, then until you tell them to stop, they can harass you pretty much incessantly, between the hours of 8 am to 9 pm.
Fortunately, debt settlement laws are quite clear in this matter: you don't have to tolerate creditor harassment for a single minute. Under the same Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, you are entitled to tell them you don't wish to be bothered by them. As soon as you do so, they are required by law to stop, or you can, quite literally, sue them for harassment – for a lot. However, you do need to take proactive action in the form of writing to each of your creditors, or to any collectors they have turned your account over to, and tell them not to contact you any more.
While this won't eliminate the debt, it will eliminate the stress and anxiety caused by their harassing you. Debt settlement laws favor debtors against their creditors immensely, but only if you know your rights and execute them. Once you have written your creditors or the collectors, they may not contact you again except to inform you they no longer be contacting you in reference to your debt. In other words, they can only harass you if you allow them to.
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