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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.

The record of written contact with a credit card debt collector is what holds weight in court. That record is a lot stronger when a consumer sends all letters certified return receipt requested.

Over the telephone credit card debt collectors lie a great deal. These are some of those lies:

1. They claim over the telephone that a lawsuit has been filed against you in your local court, and that the summons is on its way to you. This is an awful, scary lie.

2. They threaten to have you arrested. (Debts are civil, not criminal.)

3. They threaten to put a negative listing on your credit report.

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 tell you they can seize your bank account.

Each of these lies is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

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.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act allows the consumer to instruct the debt collector in writing to stop all collection calls. After that each call is a violation of the law, and subject to a $1000 penalty. Consumers should keep logs of the phone calls and contact a consumer rights attorney, who may agree to sue the credit card debt collector over these violations on a contingency fee basis.

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