The first step to start dealing with harassment from debt collectors is to learn your rights and protections under the law governing credit collection agencies---The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) . The FDCPA was legislated to protect consumers from abusive collection practices. Under this law, third party credit collectors are legally obligated to stop calling you under two circumstances:
1) You assign someone Power of Attorney – This means that you give the responsibility of handling your delinquent account to a third party. Once a collection agency is notified that a third party is responsible for dealing with an account, they are legally obligated to call them instead (unless they are going to notify the debtor that they intend to take some sort of action).
2) You send them a Cease & Desist letter – Sending a cease communication is another way that you can get a creditor to stop calling . As easy as it sounds mailing a Cease & Desist letter is a fast track to escalated collection activity (meaning the creditor will oftentimes forward your account to an attorney for collection instead) and should only be used under specific circumstances.
This being the case, one of the best and easiest ways to stop calls from collectors is to use the help of a third party debt management company. Not only are debt collectors obligated to honor their Power of Attorney, but by satisfying your debts, you can improve your credit score from the negative impact of a collections mark on your credit report. It may not be possible to completely stop all collection calls, but surely they can be reduced.
To get matched with a pre-qualified and leading provider of debt help simply fill out a form!
Other Ways To Fight Collection Agencies
- Dispute the debt with the credit bureaus – If the collection agency cannot validate the debt, it is possible for it to be removed from your report altogether. To learn more, follow this link about debt validation.
- Learn about the statute of limitations in your state – Depending on how long you have been past due and what state you live in, it’s possible that the collectors can no longer pursue your debt in court, and therefore, sending a Cease communications may be an appropriate way to stop any harassing phone calls. To learn, follow this link to learn about statutes of limitation for credit card debt.
List of Collection Agencies
- Absolute Collection Service Inc.
- Alegis Group
- Alliance One
- Allied Data Corporation
- Allied Interstate
- American Agencies
- Americollect
- Amsher Collection Services
- Arrow Financial Services
- ARS National Services
- Asset Acceptance Corp.
- Associated Recovery Systems
- Automated Collection Services
- Bay Area Credit Service, LLC.
- Bonded Adjustment Bureau
- Bonneville Collections
- Bridgeport Financial
- Capital Management Services
- Capital Recovery Service
- Cavalry Portfolio Services
- Central Credit Recovery Inc.
- Central Financial Control
- Central States Recovery
- Collect America
- Collection Bureau Associates
- Creditors Alliance Inc.
- Creditors Collection
- Creditors Interchange
- Creditors Mediator Interchange (CMI)
- Diversified Adjustment Service Inc.
- Duvera Financial
- Encore Capital Group
- E Partner Net
- Financial Credit Network Inc.
- Franklin Collection Service
- Genesis Financial Solutions
- Global Acceptance Credit Company
- Grant & Weber
- Inovision
- Liberty Collection Bureau
- LTD Financial Services
- LVNV Funding LLC
- MAF Collection Services
- Midland Credit Management
- Nationwide Credit Inc.
- National Credit Systems
- NCO Financial
- Northeast Credit and Collections
- OSI Collection Services
- Oxford Management Services
- Palisades Collection LLC
- Park Dansan
- Penncro Associates
- Plaza Associates
- Portfolio Recovery Associates
- Professional Recovery Systems, Inc.
- Receivables Performance Management
- Sherman Acquisition
- Southwest Credit Systems
- Tulsa Adjustment Bureau
- Unifund
- United Recovery Systems
- Viking Collection Service
- West Asset Managment Inc.
- Wolpoff & Abramson
- World Trotter
- Zenith Acquisition Corporation
- Zwicker & Associates