When a Credit Card Debt Collector Calls, You Do Not Have to Answer

Telephone calls have no legal weight since there is no record of what was said on a call. Knowing this, credit card debt collectors will say threatening things on the phone and get away with telling their lies. That is why consumer debt collectors choose to use the phone over mail. Debt collectors lose their power when communications are reduced to writing.

What matters in court are the written communications, or the lack of them, between a consumer and a credit card debt collector. Mail sent certified return receipt requested further helps the consumer put the debt collector on the defensive.

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. Debt collectors will threaten to have you arrested. No one can be arrested for a civil matter.

4. They will tell you may have your wages reduced to pay your debt, and you will get a negative listing on your credit report.

5. They threaten to have your bank account seized.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is violated by each of these threats.

These threats are attempts to get you to confirm that the debt is yours. The credit card debt collector wants to confirm the credit card number in question and get other personal information. They want to know your Social Security number, the phone number of your work place and even information about your bank account. The Credit Card Debt Survival Guide says that you should react by disputing the debt and denying it over the phone to the credit card debt collector. Remember that the person on the other end of the line unknown to you. Tell them you do not share personal information over the phone with people unknown to you and then hang up.

If you end up taking a call from a credit card debt collector, you should only stay on long enough to find out what debt they are telephoning about. Before hanging up, advise them that you need written notice of this debt and that you will not talk about it over the phone.

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.