Are collectors coming after you unfairly our credit expert is here now with some advice on how to really protect yourself Bo Thomas is a certified credit expert who has helped consumers all across the country thank you for coming and thank you thank you this all stems us inviting you here to talk specifically stems from this law suit that just came down against a large creditor yeah the FTC just ordered one the largest ever by a third party debt collectors million dollars for doing something what we find a lotta collectors do every day to consumers but they were just called on it yeah there are some serious very specific lines for creditors to call you or get in touch with you and how they can do it and when they can do it lets go through those and talk about those because there are certain even times of day they can do it right absolutely and and a lot don't follow the rules but so the most common ones that they violate and what this million dollar settlement was calling before 8 o'clock in the morning or after nine o'clock at night hiding their identity one of the really common ones there is that they block the caller ID so you don't know who is calling and you pick up right right they can't use an automatic dialer to call your cell phone and that's another real common thing as well like a pre recorded message kind of thing that's illegal yeah if they leave it no matter the time of day no matter the time of day but that's only on your cell phones a little tricky there on your home phone that's okay all right very good and this first one we forgot to mention is they cannot call several times yeah there's a limit and that's harassed they really there's there's case law out there that states that more than three times in a day can be construed as harassment so threes their max per 24 hour period okay and then you can ask them to cease and desist you can make a formal request yeah so if you if you tell me that you refuse to pay the debt and the stop calling they have to stop calling if they continue to call after that that's when you need to take action okay so now I see in a court situation or something if you try and and turn to legal help for this it turns into a he said she said so how in the world do you you know protect yourself yeah lets say you take steps you know document all calls log all the calls as they call I even if it's a log just jot down who you spoke with what time of day even just your own hand written absolutely that's all you need you don't have to have a smoking gun or anything like that yeah just document down you can go to our web-site we have a lot of the free information there's a log and steps up what to do okay if you're getting these calls course a few get a recorded message that's maybe even better proof right absolutely that's that's like surveillance footage that's that's documentation of them doing okay so if you get that save that recorded message and tapes you say all written correspondents too if you get anything in the mail the most those actually are covered by the business insurance you don't see very many violations there but any correspondence you get absolutely there's rules that they Follow before the first time that they communicate with you an attempt to collect a debt they have to send you a dunning letter it's a letter this advising you of your rights each time they communicate with you that's another key factor they have to advise you of your rights and it's commonly known as your mini Miranda and that's the phrase that it's an attempt to collect a debt any information will be used for that purpose if they don't do that this subject up to a thousand dollar fine which goes to the consumer not anybody else a consumer can get up to a thousand dollars just but small tedious mistake okay so let's say you've made these logs you you've got all your documentation ready then what that's when we turn to someone for help in representing us right yeah that's and that's what we with our credit repair clients we coach them and educate them on what they can do to document really build a case then we get them our attorney the firm addelman law firm specializes in Ft CPA claims which is the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act okay and now he'll get you taken care of so how do we find you if needed absolutely reach us on the web.
