Know your rights when dealing with collection agency harassment

Unmanageable debt has become a way of life for a majority of Americans. Even as our government struggles to survive its own massive deficits, it is not surprising that we as individuals often have difficulty meeting our credit card payments, mortgages and car loans, especially when interest rates and bank fees are designed to keep consumers deep in debt.  The fact is that our economy encourages people to live with too much debt, in ways that cannot be repaid in a lifetime. We are encouraged to buy more than we need and to pay for it later by use of credit cards, mortgages, student loans and car payments. Even with the best of intentions, unforeseen things can happen. Yet, we all need to survive and must provide for our families, even if it comes at the cost of not knowing how to pay for it until later. And so, money issues can get out of control, even more so when something unexpected happens.  It can be the result of an historically bad economy, divorce, death or illness of a wage earner, or job loss. Debt increases throughout life and causes major stress.

If paying your bills has become difficult, your accounts have likely been sent to collections. Collection departments and debt collectors are the tools used by banks, mortgage companies, auto lenders  and credit card companies. These same businesses that encouraged you to buy, to pay later, assault you with collection harassment demands to pay immediately, by any means necessary;  and when people don’t pay immediately, that’s when things go from bad to worse.  Collection departments and debt collectors specialize in pressuring you to pay and pay and pay, often resorting to harassment, threats, abuse, deception and occasionally filing lawsuits, until they get what they want.  In far too many cases, the actual amounts being sought changes considerably, growing far greater than the amounts actually owed without any justification. In other cases, the debts are too old to be collected, but that does not stop the collection industry from pushing as hard as possible, knowing that good people want to pay their bills.

If you find yourself being called by a debt collector, the chances of you being the victim of collection agency harassment is far greater than you may think. Americans are contacted by debt collection agencies every year, in many cases several times a year. However, there are steps that one can take in order to stop the harassment, and to be certain they do not pay anything more than they actually owe. In many cases, people can drastically reduce and even eliminate the debt they have. A lot of debt claims can be defended, more often than you think.

One of the key points to getting out of debt and avoiding collection harassment is to manage your money effectively, but once you are already having trouble, you need help. Getting debt help starts with gaining knowledge on managing your income and expenses, keeping a tight rein on unnecessary spending and eliminating erratic behavior. It also means cutting back on offers of credit and not using cards that charge excessive interest and fees. The removal of debt harassment in your life, whether you are experiencing it for the first time or have been dealing with it for years, is achievable through calculated steps to keep your money and life in order.