Your Rights and Creditors

By ADAM, 21/07/2011

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS

I’m behind and the creditors are calling, do I have any rights?

If the creditors are calling you, and the debts they are calling about are debts unrelated to a business, you have significant rights.

Different laws protect you depending on who is calling. If the original creditor is calling you, you have some protection under the Texas Debt Collection Act. An original creditor would be someone like Bank of America contacting you regarding a credit card.

There are many protections under the Act. For example, you are not allowed to be harassed or called countless times. You cannot be threatened with things that are unlawful, such as being arrested because you owe money. You cannot be charged fees that were not part of the original contract.

There’s lots more that protects you under this law and you can read all of the safeguards of the Texas Debt Collection Act by going to: http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/docs/fi/htm/fi.392.htm

If a third-party is contacting you, as opposed to the original creditor, not only are you protected by the Texas Debt Collection Act, you are also protected by the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.