Harassing Debt Collectors? File Bankruptcy and Make Them Pay for It

Once you've fallen behind on your financial obligations, it's only a matter of time before the debt collectors start calling. If it's a bank or your credit card company, then the notices should be professional and hopefully cordial. However, once debt gets passed on to a collection company, the letters and phone calls will likely become much more aggressive.

Fortunately, there are laws in place that give you the power to fight back. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) outlines what debt collectors can and cannot do.

FDCPA Violations
The FDCPA has extensive guidelines that determine the actions debt collectors and creditors can take in order to get you to respond and pay your debts. Most common things that creditors will do that violate this law include:

1. Call Repeatedly to Annoy or Bother You
Often, debt collectors or aggressive creditors will call over and over again, ensuring the phone does not stop ringing in hopes that you will eventually break down and pick it up.

2. Give You False Information
Creditors may try to scare you into paying off your debt by flat out lying to you, and making up legal consequences that are not within their power, like garnishing your wages or placing a lien on your property.

3. Using Profanity
Creditors cannot use overly aggressive language or profanity.

4. Threatening Remarks
Any type of threats of violence, or criminal consequences of a failure to repay debts are prohibited.

What You Can Do About It
If you can show that a creditor has violated the FDCPA, then a lawsuit can be filed for damages. The interesting thing is using FDCPA laws in conjunction with a bankruptcy case. Imagine, you're up to your eyeballs in debt, and you elect to file for bankruptcy. This means your creditors are legally barred from collecting any debt from you.

Additionally, you can use an FDCPA claim to force your creditors to pay you damages and use the money for filing and legal fees. Effectively, you can use bankruptcy to cancel your debts, and make your creditors pay for it. While bankruptcy on it's own is a very powerful way to get creditors off your back, having them pay for your bankruptcy case is like icing on the cake.