Our readers have often read blog posts in which we discussed how some debt collectors fall into the habit of harassing debtors. The types of harassment we have discussed include foul language, making false threats and back-to-back phone calls. There are some other things that debt collectors might do that are illegal. Our Florida residents might find this interesting.
All debt collectors are bound by laws that dictate what they can do. One of the points of these laws pertains to who the debt collector can contact about your debt and what information he or she can convey to that person. The laws even cover how often they can contact other people.
In most cases, debt collectors are forbidden from contacting third parties more than once. They aren’t allowed to say that they are collecting a debt. They can’t discuss your account with most people; however, there are some exceptions. They can speak to your spouse, your guardian and your attorney. They can discuss your account with a parent if you are a minor, but not otherwise.
When speaking to people other than you, the debt collector is allowed to ask for your phone number, where you work, and where you live. That is the extent of what they are allowed to discuss with them.
One important point is that if you have an attorney and you relay that to the debt collector, they are only allowed to speak to the attorney about the debt. If you are being harassed by debt collectors, determining how to handle those calls and the correspondence is the first step in getting the harassment to stop.
Source: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, “Can debt collectors tell other people about my debt?” accessed Feb. 03, 2015