Credit Help Center

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There’s a lot of you out there that probably owe some bills, and while a lot of you want to pay your bills, there are some that are legitimately not paying, because you’d rather put food on your family’s table, and I don’t blame you!

Now, if you’re getting call after call, day by day, and you think that they are violating your rights, you could be right.

First, let’s take a look at what your rights are as a human being, when it comes down to owing any company a certain amount of money for past bills:

• They can’t call your office.
• They can only call your home from 8AM to 9PM.
• They can’t abuse you over the phone.
• They can’t threaten you with violence.
• They can’t lie, or make something up that isn’t true.
• They can’t add any charges that you don’t owe.

If you’re looking at these and shaking your head yes, you’re probably wondering what you can do about the situation.

1.  Write them a certified letter and state that you want to be contacted via the mail only.  Make sure you give them all the information that they need in the letter, such as your name, account number, and more.  By law, they have to abide by this.  Make sure you make a copy for your own records as well.

2.  Contact the Better Business Bureau and look up the company that is calling them up.  If they have a bad grade, you may be dealing a with a bad company.  Feel free to vent your frustration with the BBB.

3.  If the problem tends to continue after the first step, I would strongly encourage you to contact your State’s Attorney Generals office, and explain your whole situation to them.  The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act protects you from incidences such as the above.

You can also file a complain via the following address:

FTC
6 Street & Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20850

You can find that you can eventually take the company to small claims court and sue them.  If you go this route, make sure that you have as much evidence as possible.  While you may not get a major settlement, it will set the company straight with their practices.

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