Violations of Consumer Credit Protection Act & Fair Debt Collection Act

There are laws out there that protect you as a borrower. There are also laws of does and don’ts for creditors.

The Consumer Credit protection Act was merely the first of many federal statutes to come along to protect you as consumers. As it was established in 1972, it mandated that there was to be complete disclosure of terms and conditions of the finance charges in transactions. It also limited the amount of money that could be garnished form your wages.

The Consumer Credit Protection Act is the overarching umbrella and the other acts that became more specific from it are as follows:

• Truth in Lending Act
• Fair Credit Reporting Act
• Equal Credit Opportunity Act
• Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
• Electronic Fund Transfer Act

While each of these are equally important, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is probably the most handy to know as of right now.

This fair debt collection act concerns the way you as the borrower are treated by debt collection agencies. It specifically gives these collectors a list of rules to follow, which protects you from harassment. It was amended in 1996 to address all the deceptive, abusive and unfair practices being done by collectors. The debts covered under this act are personal, family, and household debts.

Here is a list of some of the many laws under Fair Debt Collection Act:

• §805 Communication
  • Collector may contact by mail, telephone, telegram or fax
  • Collector may not contact during an inconvenient time such as before 8a.m. and after 9p.m.
  • Collector may not contact the consumer directly if there is knowledge that the consumer is represented by an attorney with respect to such debt
  • Collector may not contact at the place of employment if it is known that the employer prohibits such communication
• §806 Harassment or abuse - the following conduct is a violation of this section:
  • use or threat of violence or other criminal means to harm the physical person, reputation, or property of any person
  • use of obscene or profane language
  • causing a telephone to ring or engaging in conversation over the phone repeatedly or continuously with intent to annoy

These are merely just the top layer of laws created to protect you as a consumer. If you feel that you have had any of these happen to you, or something happened, which is not listed and you wish to find out if it breaks the law, please contact me.

Again this is not the full list of laws designed to protect you, but merely a scratch at the surface. I am here to make sure that you as a consumer are protected.