• Help Is Available!
To a certain extent, the
debt collection industry has been sufficiently dissuaded from their former patterns of harassment by the increasingly harsh penalties handed down by the national boards governing appropriate credit card debt reclamation (as well as the heightened funding granted the Federal Trade Commission for active investigations of consumer complaints). Should the lawless arrogance or slipshod organization of one firm continue to nudge up against the boundaries of local or federal regulations, contact with all due haste the relevant administrators by phone, e-mail, or written letter and provide a detailed report of any behavior you believe has crossed the line. • Don’t Believe The Hope
You’ve seen the telemarketing boiler rooms in the movies, desperate folk sweating out the sales, poor people trying to earn a dollar or two more for their families by lying to other troubled earners and granting false promises about some mythic salvation that sounds too good to be true. In all reality, there’s a continuous flow between the credit card debt reclamation industry and the telesales professionals whose high pressure tactics encouraged so many home owners to sign up for
debt relief consolidation equity lines of credit and helped spark the massive economic recession around the United States. Odds are, the debt collectors on the phone were hired purely for their dogged persistence and shamelessness. It’s extremely unlikely that they know any more than you about consumer finance protocols, and all advice given would be previously written out for them by the debt collection agency management and solely intended to financially benefit the corporate bottom line. • Debt Does Not Come To Everyone
Consumers who’ve let their credit card debt balances grow out of control tend to assume the worst whenever they’re contacted by a debt collection service, and this is doubly true for those borrowers who’ve abandoned former loan accounts to default and charge offs. If you’ve already started a program of debt relief and credit repair, the temptation may well be to simply agree to whatever payment arrangements are suggested by the debt collector without ever checking into the viability of the sums in question. However, all lenders make mistake, and the collection agencies in the business of buying old loans are infamous for jacking up finance charges and late fees without provocation or legal recourse that could amount to as much as double the actual balance owed. For that matter, if the debt’s old enough, it may have already passed the statute of limitations for your state of residence. • Knowledge Is Power
Whether you’re trying desperately to avoid bankruptcy filings and fulfill some sort of individual quest for credit card debt relief or already working with an attorney on a Chapter 7 declaration, stay silent about your activities. This is most critical when it comes to debt settlement plans. The heart of settlement negotiation relies upon the potential for Chapter Seven bankruptcy protection eliminating instantly and forever all unsecured loans -- at no small cost to the family’s credit ratings, household estate, or financial opportunities -- but tipping your hand to a collection agency representative about your intent could implode the delicately controlled process. Worse yet, should the conversation be recorded without your prior knowledge or consent (legal in many states), the very admission of a debt settlement attempt could irrevocably ruin your chances for debt relief and bankruptcy shields since you’d be inherently underlining your capacity to satisfy the majority of your outstanding bills.