The attorney listings on this site are paid attorney advertising. In some states, the information on this website may be considered a lawyer referral service. Please reference the Terms of Use and the Supplemental Terms for specific information related to your state.
Grow Your Legal Practice. Meet the Editors. Consider some of the pros and cons of providing creditors more information than necessary. What Do You Hope to Accomplish? When You Just Want the Calls to Stop There's no guarantee that threatening to file bankruptcy will stop annoying creditor calls. Here are additional approaches to consider: Hiring an attorney. If you hire a bankruptcy attorney, and you inform your creditor of that fact, the creditor will have to call your attorney instead of you.
Ask the creditor to stop. Additionally, you can write to the creditor and ask it to stop calling you. Keep in mind, however, that you might want to know what's going on with your account.
Unless you're judgment proof you don't have any assets the creditor can get , you might want to consider another alternative. Talk to a Bankruptcy Lawyer Need professional help? Start here. Practice Area Please select Zip Code. How it Works Briefly tell us about your case Provide your contact information Choose attorneys to contact you. Related Products More. Chapter 13 Bankruptcy. How to File for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. The New Bankruptcy. The actual date depends on the type of debt and the state law where you live or the state specified in your credit agreement.
Consult with a legal aid lawyer, another lawyer in your state, or your state attorney general's office to learn the applicable statute of limitations in your situation.
Just because the statute of limitations has expired doesn't mean a creditor or collector won't sue you. If you get sued, you'll have to raise the statute of limitations as a defense. If you don't, the creditor or collector might be able to get a judgment against you on an otherwise unenforceable debt. Also, a statute of limitations doesn't eliminate the debt—it just limits the collector's ability to sue you for it.
But you still might get collection letters or calls about a debt even if the statute of limitations has expired. If a debt collector contacts you, consider ignoring the calls or not responding to other communication methods—at least until you learn about your rights, find out if the debt is truly yours , whether you want to file for bankruptcy, and learn whether the statute of limitations has expired.
You don't want to provide the collector with useful collection information inadvertently, or worse, say something that reaffirms the debt. A collections log is a written record that you make of the date and time that a collector calls, the person you speak with, and what the collector says to you. Your log doesn't have to be anything fancy—writing it on a notepad or spare piece of paper is fine, or keeping a log using your computer or phone works too. A collections log will help you straighten out who is calling you from where, and what debts each collector is calling about.
It will also help you keep track of how often a particular collector calls and document inconsistencies in what collectors say to you from one call to the next. If the collector sends texts or leaves voicemails with abusive language, keep the messages. These records can be useful if you decide to sue the collector in court or if you decide to try to settle the debt.
Under the federal FDCPA, if you request that a debt collector stop contacting you completely, it must do so, subject to a few exceptions.
Your request must be in writing. But think carefully before you tell a collector to cease communicating with you. If you want to keep tabs on the debt status or open up the lines of communication with the collector to negotiate a settlement , a cease communication directive might not be in your best interest.
If you ask the collector to stop corresponding with you, it can't contact you except to serve you with a lawsuit. However, if you're thinking about filing for bankruptcy , telling the collector to stop contacting you might be a good idea. Once you file, the court puts in place an order called the automatic stay. The stay stops most collection calls, but collectors can still call before you file.
If you feel the debt isn't legitimate or you don't owe it, you should tell the collector why. Often, collectors aren't even aware that your debt might be uncollectable.
If your reason is valid, the collector might voluntarily cease collection on the debt. Their resources could be better used on consumers who don't have a valid objection to paying the money. If you act quickly, you can request in writing that the debt collector validate the debt , and the collector must stop collection activities while it does so.
A collector doesn't have to stop trying to collect just because you can't pay. But telling collectors that you can't pay, and giving them a short explanation of your financial difficulties, might lead them to move on to other consumers.
It might also prevent your file from being referred to litigation. But be sure not to admit that you owe the debt or say anything that might restart an expired statute of limitations. Depending on your state, you might restart the statute of limitations if you make a partial payment on a debt or otherwise acknowledge that you owe a debt that you haven't been paying. A new promise to pay a debt might also revive the statute of limitations in some circumstances.
This could be by phone or email. A final response letter might take longer. Your creditor also has to report your complaint to the Financial Conduct Authority FCA , even if they respond within 3 business days. If you need help with this, you can phone our debt helpline on You should always complain directly to the creditor first but if this does not solve the problem, you may also want to complain to a professional body too.
Your debt collector may belong to a trade association or professional body with a code of practice that sets out how they are supposed to behave towards you. You can also contact the Citizens Advice consumer service who can help. They may be able to refer your case to Trading Standards.
In Northern Ireland, you can contact Consumerline at www. To find out if your lender belongs to a trade association which has a code of practice, see Further Help. The trade association may also take action against its members who break the code of practice.
If your complaint is against a bank, building society or credit card company, they may belong to the Standards of Lending Practice. The Standards of Lending Practice set out principles that its members should follow. You should complain to the bank, building society or credit card company first, using their complaints procedure. If this does not sort out the problem, you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service , telling them that a debt collector or creditor has broken the terms of the Standards of Lending Practice.
For more information about complaining to the Financial Ombudsman Service, go to the Financial Ombudsman's website at: www. For more information about the Standards of Lending Practice or to find out if your creditor is a member, go to www. If a solicitor is harassing you on behalf of a creditor, this is considered to be professional misconduct. To make a complaint, you will first need to use the firm's internal complaints procedure.
If this does not resolve the problem, you can complain to one of the professional associations. To work out which association you should complain to, you first need to check where the solicitor is registered. If they are registered in Northern Ireland, you can complain to the Law Society. Go to www. If you want to complain about a local firm, you can contact the Citizens Advice Consumer Service.
They can put you in touch with your local Trading Standards Office, who can investigate whether an offence had been committed. The FCA has rules and guidance about debt collection. Although the FCA cannot take up your individual case, they can refuse or revoke the firm's authorisation or, for example, fine the firm.
It may be worth reminding the creditor that breaching the rules could affect their FCA authorisation. You may have borrowed money from a money lender who is not FCA authorised. These lenders are often called loan sharks and they may physically or verbally threaten you if you can't pay back the money. They also charge extremely high rates of interest, which means you may end up owing much more money than you originally borrowed.
It's important to remember that loan sharks are breaking the law by lending you money in this way.
0コメント