Thursday, 13 June 2013

Useful Information About Professional Collections

By Teri Farley


Professional collections follows industry standards which encourage ethical behavior on the part of those who attempt to collect debts. Procedures ought to be consistent with federal, state and local laws. All those involved with contacting consumers in order to collect debts must do so in an ethical manner. The objective is to resolve the problem by working out a payment plan that is workable for the person owning the debt. The objective is certainly not to punish the debtor or to give them a Sunday school lesson about paying their bills.

Just because a person owes money does not make them a criminal. In fact, it only backfires to harangue someone about money that they owe. On the other hand, most people will cooperate and work with the collector to make payment arrangements when they are treated politely. For these reason, a collector ought to adopt a helpful attitude. As the old saying goes, you kill more flies with honey than vinegar.

When the collector receives a written request from a debtor to verify the debt, then all efforts to collect from the person must be suspended. The debtor must be given verification of the debt. If verification is not provided, the person's credit reports must have the item either removed or flagged as disputed. Both the creditor and the debtor must be notified in writing that the debt was unable to be verified.

Efforts to get payment for a debt that is beyond the statute of limitations are not permitted. These types of obligations are called time-barred debts. You must check each state's statute of limitations because it varies from state to state. You can not sue a person for a time-barred debt.

Identity theft has become a serious problem in our economy. The growth of the internet has made this criminal activity more frequent. A debt made with a stolen identity is not valid. Consumers should be careful about being vulnerable to identity theft. Frequent reviews of credit reports are a helpful measure that should be done regularly.

A common example of behavior that constitutes harassment is continuous annoying telephone calls. Telephone Calls before 8 a. M. Or after 9 p. M. Are not allowed. Threatening a lawsuit, using fowl offensive language is not permitted. Calling at work is considered harassment. In short, consumers must not be harassed.

Contacting employers, neighbors, friends co-workers, and family friends in an attempt to alert them that the consumer has unpaid bills is no longer permitted. These types of abusive methods to collect money owed were once common. They are now forbidden by law.

The rules of professional collections state that the collection efforts be done only on valid legal debts. Members of the public must always be treated with utmost respect and courtesy. These industry rules of conduct help create an environment where collectors can work with debtors in a friendly way to establish reasonable payment plans.




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