Bill Collection

Dealing with debt collectors can be considered as the one of the most anxiety-inducing and stressful experience for us. The trash talks, harassments and threats can make just about anyone go insane. The federal government of the United States enacted several legislations that could protect the rights of consumers. One of the most important of which is the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act of 1977.

Fair debt collection is a general term which means the regulation of the debt collection industry by the Federal and state level of the United States. The country being under a federal system of government means that the state and central government possess a wide rage of powers that the other entity cannot encroach. Such power and authority can only be exercised in their own jurisdiction. Thus we can see that there are various debt collection laws that govern each of this level. In each of the state of US, there is a different set of debt collection laws that govern and protect their consumers. Such statutes are often regarded as “mini-FDCPAs”. In the federal level, we have the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (or FDCPA) refers to the legislation passed in the 1977 US Congress which aims to protect consumers from collection agencies’ abusive behaviors, to promote fair debt collection, to provide greater avenue for consumers to air their grievances, and to validate and dispute their debt information. Specifically, The FDCPA enumerates the rights of consumers in relation with the debt collectors, the guidelines on how the debt collectors should conduct business, the penalties and punishments if the debt collectors violated any of the rights of the consumers.

The details of the FDCPA will be further discussed in the articles that will follow.