CONSUMER DEBT

Legal Services of Northern Virginia, Inc. (LSNV) handles a variety of consumer-related legal matters, including:

• post-judgment oral interrogatories;
• condo dues;
• consumer fraud;
• contract disputes;
• contractor licenses;
• credit-report errors and omissions;
• garnishment of wages and bank accounts;
• hospital bills;
• liens;
• medical-debt;
• repossession of vehicles;
• student loans;
• vehicle repair;
• and warranties.

These matters often involve lawsuits in Virginia General District and Circuit Courts.

When Debt Collectors Call

What goes through your mind when you are delinquent on your credit card or you owe money that you cannot pay on a bill? Will I be sued? Will my wages or bank account get garnished? Will I go to jail? It's important to know your debtors' rights. No, you won't go to jail; and there is a federal law that may help you, but you must take some action and do it quickly.

 

If you are delinquent on your payments you should contact the creditor before it calls you and see if you can work out a payment plan. If however you receive that dreaded telephone call, here are some of the things you shouldn't do and you should do.

 

Things Not to Do

When you are called about a debt, you are not required to answer any questions, but if you do don't be dishonest. Remember you don't really know who the caller is.
 

• Don't tell the caller you owe the debt, because even if you owe part of a debt you probably don't know exactly how much you owe.
• Don't agree to any type of payment plan you know that you cannot handle. For example, if you are offered a settlement to pay $100.00 a month on a debt of $3000.00, don't say you can if you know that you cannot. In this example, remember, absent interest and other fees, it will take you 30 months paying $100.00 per month to pay off the debt (or two and one-half years).
• Never provide personal financial information. For example, if you are asked for your bank account number or bank routing number, do not give them. 

Things to Do
First determine if the caller is from your original lender, for example the credit card company. Or, is the caller a third-party debt collection agency, for example ABC Debtor Collectors. If the caller is from a debt-collection agency (not the original lender), you have some very important protections found in The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (abbreviated "FDCPA"). The stated purpose of this act includes the elimination of:
 
…abusive debt collection practices by debt collectors; and
to promote consistent State action to protect consumers against debt collection abuses.

Go on the Internet and type in "Fair Debt Collection Practices Act" in a search engine and you will be taken directly to this act http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre27.pdf. Make a copy of this act and keep it handy.

Tell the caller, from the debt collector, to send you in the mail confirmation of the debt and the name of the original lender. If your first contact with a representative of the debt collector is by mail, don't ignore the letter. Immediately request, in writing, details regarding the debt.

The debt collector must provide you with the following information:

• the amount of the debt;
• the name of the creditor to whom the debt is owed;
• a statement that unless the consumer, within thirty days after receipt of the notice, disputes the validity of the debt, or any portion thereof, the debt will be assumed to be valid by the debt collector; 
• a statement that if the consumer notifies the debt collector in writing within the thirty-day period that the debt, or any portion thereof, is disputed, the debt collector will obtain verification of the debt or a copy of a judgment against the consumer and a copy of such verification or judgment will be mailed to the consumer by the debt collector;
• and a statement that, upon the consumer’s written request within the thirty-day period, the debt collector will provide the consumer with the name and address of the original creditor, if different from the current creditor.

How Can I Stop Those Dreaded Telephone Calls?
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act lets you write a letter to the debt collector telling them they must stop calling you on the telephone. If they continue to contact you except by mail, after they receive your letter, they are in violation of the act.

Consumer's Request that a Debt Collector Cease Contact (333 KB)