Many debt collection agencies use emotionally draining, disingenuous and generally unfair practices in their attempts to collect unpaid debt. Some scavenger collectors will now try to collect debt that’s well past the statute of limitations, use harassing techniques, and even try to collect debt from the debtor’s relatives, or people who might not even be related, but just have the name! Fortunately there’s a federal law in place which protects the consumer in this case. You can stop a collector from contacting you for purposes of collecting a debt by force of law with the exception of notifying you of a lawsuit.

This is not a magic ticket to avoid paying debts that you legally owe. If you legitimately owe a company money, you should pay it. This doesn’t mean that you have to accept their harassment techniques, but it does mean that you should work with them to come up with some sort of settlement plan. Take a call from them once every two weeks or so, and just tell them how you’re doing with the debt, what your plans to pay them off are, try to discuss a settlement offer, etc. It’s usually not a good idea in this case for file a cease and desist letter for debts that you’re paying on and will eventually pay off, because often that will trigger a lawsuit.

If you do come up with an agreement with the creditor, make sure that you get it in writing, otherwise the agreement isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. When you do pay them, use a money order or a bank draft. You don’t want them to have any sort of access to your checking account information. Often times they’ll take all of the money out of your account and there’s not any real legal recourse.

There are some very good situations where it makes sense to tell a collector to just go away and to stop bugging you. Here are some of those instances:
• The debt is extremely old and past the statute of limitations (usually 7 years)
• You do not remember taking out the debt, and they cannot provide any evidence that you did.
• The collector is calling you several times a day and intentionally trying to disrupt your life.
• The debt in question is simply not yours

If you meet any of those instances, it’s usually a good time just to tell the collector to get lost. Simply write them a letter, and send it certified mail, return receipt requested, telling them that under the Fair Debt Collection Practices act, they are not allowed to contact you further in regards to this debt. If they do illegally contact you after that, you can sue them and win quite easily.

Here’s a sample cease and desist letter for you to make use of:

[Date]

To Whom It May Concern:

Your company has contacted me about a debt that you allege I owe, and I am instructing you to not contact me further in regards to this debt. Under federal law (the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act), you may not contact me any further as I have notified you not to do so.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

[Your Address]
[Your Account Number]