How Illegal Debt Buying Practices Could Destroy You
Posted by : Premraj | Posted on : Tuesday, January 12, 2016
DELICIOUS
SU
REDDITDebt buying is a process that happens on a daily basis to millions of people, mostly in the US. It isn’t illegal at all, until the debt buyer makes it so. This is something that happens when a large company buys billions of dollars in debt and then sells it. You may think this is a rumor, but you can be assured that it is true.
All sorts of companies do this, with the most common being credit card companies (of course), hospitals, companies that provide loans for individuals, banks and other money lending organizations and individuals. They all regularly sell debt, buy debt and resell it. This could include your own debts as well, and you won’t even know about it.
Credit cards are the most common example
A prime example of this is when you open a credit card account at your local bank. If, at any point during your ownership of the account, you should stop paying back the money that you owe the bank, the company that issues the credit card will terminate your account at the bank, making it impossible to use your card. After this, they will begin sending you collection letters. This is something that many may have experienced at some point.
At any point after this, the company could also decide to sell the rights to your debt for cash to a different entity. The buyer might pay something as low as 5 cents for every dollar you owe. The buyer purchases this and a number of other debts at this rate, in bulk. After this, the buyer will try to collect what you owe by calling you to collect. On the other hand, they could retain a lawyer and sue you blind.
It is legal until it isn’t
As long as the buyer follows the rules that make the buying of debt legal, there isn’t a problem with it. However, this changes when they decide to take advantage of the customers who owe the money because the customer usually doesn’t know the rules of debt buying, or even understand the concept fully. If you are in somewhere like Scottsdale debt and bankruptcy help won’t be hard to come by though, so make sure you take advantage of this, and maybe retain a debt lawyer of your own just in case.
Some of the illegal ways in which a debt buyer can harass you include:
– Calling you after working hours, or calling you a certain number of times within an hour or day, all of which could violate the law
– Providing you with misinformation in order to make you agree to automatic calls
– Failing to engage with you when you dispute the debt that you owe
– Passing the debt over to law firms instead of paying them the retainer, without logging the right paperwork
– Threatening you with a lawsuit
– Collecting from you without appropriate documentation
Make sure that you keep a look out for anyone who tries to harass or threaten you in this way, or abuse your lack of knowledge. Remember that help is only a phone call away, as there are law firms who specialize in this.
