Ways to Get Rid of a Collection Agency

No one likes getting calls from creditors, and if you are in need of debt relief and work out a reasonable solution with the creditor, that is all good. However, if you are being pursued by one of the many junk debt buyers out there and being harassed with threatening phone calls, you need to know your rights and FIGHT BACK! Several studies have shown that 9 out of 10 people, who disputed their debt, won their case. This is largely because the "bottom feeders" don't want a fight, they just want money.

Junk debt buyers are known as "bottom feeders". They buy consumer debts in volume and then begin their nasty pursuit of credit collecting using increasingly questionable practices. If a junk debt buyer tells you he owns the debt, and, therefore, is not required to follow the Federal Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), that is simply not the truth. They are still a 3rd party debt collector according to the law.

They want to intimidate you into paying it. If you request an extensive validation of the debt, for example, they may just go away, because this would mean you know your rights and it would be an expense and effort on their part to provide it as required by law. Of course, this would be relevant to the amount of money in question. They actually train their employees to go after your friends, neighbors and relatives in pursuit of embarrassing you so that will just pay up. In many cases, they could have won their bid for as little as 8 cents on the dollar, so now they just want to recoup whatever they can. Their information would include the number of accounts, the average balance, and original charge off date and possibly phone numbers. They do actually become the first party owner of the debt, but they are still not excluded from the FDCPA requirements. They typically do not like the threat of a lawsuit, and will many times, settle out of court before that ever happens (again this would depend on the amount of the debt, and how much they have "fractured" their case). Also, the first junk buyer took the "cream of the top accounts" and sold of the rest of the debt for even less. These are called "seconds". It gets uglier, because this can create another record on your credit report along with the first. They won't just close out the file either. They'll sell it again! There are now pending laws in place to stop this practice, but who knows how long that will take? There are some consumer attorneys that have been on this issue and have won some rather high profile cases. Good news for the consumer.

Do not be surprised if they attempt to sue you, but do not be intimidated either. Keep good records of every phone call and every document. Demand a full validation of the debt history, and look into your own state's laws regarding debt collection. Remember, most often the creditor does not win in these situations.

Don't forget what your rights are concerning debt collection practices under the FDCPA.

If you tell them in writing not to contact you again, they can only contact you once more to tell you what their follow up plan will be. (Be sure to also request a complete validation of the entire history of the debt).
They cannot contact you at work if you told them not to do so.
Intimidation and harsh language is extremely forbidden. No name calling, no idle threats, no misrepresentation; these would make your case easy to win.

You have every right to sue them in either federal or state small claims for any violation of the FDCPA rules (and they violate many of them everyday). In so doing, you would be providing a service to all consumers in a similar situation.