Creditor Harassment

When we moved into our new home, we had trouble with the cell provider we had. To make a long story short, I tried working with the cell phone company on the issue and no one seemed to want to address the situation. Good enough.  We switch cell phone companies and I didn’t pay the bill.  I simply wanted them to adjust our bill for all the dropped calls…which were way too many in a place I was told we would have no trouble with their service.  I let the bill go to the company’s collection dept.  It was then that I got some satisfaction.  I made an agreement with them and paid what we agreed upon right then.  Well…this was actually the beginning of a nightmare and I wished I had known at the time was there was protection out there to stop collection harassment for good.

After paying them off, I had not one, two but three agencies – consecutively, calling and sending me letters wanting me to pay up.  I told them if I was to keep contacting me, I was going to take legal action as the bill was paid eons ago.  Honestly, I wished I had now.  I shouldn’t have even been in collections over a bill I had paid – a bill that shouldn’t have been sent on to a collection agency to begin with!  I wished I had dug deeper into the legalities of the harassment as I was protected by the FDCPA.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) enacted in 1978 protects creditors from abusive debtor harassment and provides consumers with a voice against unfair practices from debt collectors.  It is important to know your rights against creditor harassment.  You can stop collection harassment in California.  Know your rights!