Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), it’s your right to request that a collection agency cease communication with you; a right granted/protected by FDCPA Section 805(c). (It’s called a Cease and Desist Letter or C&D among us credit repair junkies) Basically, it does what it sounds like: forbids a collection agency to contact you once they receive your written request to cease communication. Lately, the question raised was whether a consumer can use the C&D letter to request only contact by letter, or request that the collection agency not contact you at work, etc., meaning the consumer could allow one form of communication, but not another. The answer is “no”.
If you exercise your right to use the C&D letter, you can’t say something like, “don’t contact me at work because I am not allowed to take phone calls and don’t contact me at home because it is inconvenient”. Many people are confused by what to ask for in a C&D letter because there is language in the FDCPA allowing the consumer to request a ceasing of communications; in a separate section of the FDCPA [Section 805(a)(3)], there is language about notifying a collection agency that they cannot contact a consumer at work because they’ve been informed that the consumer’s employer does not allow it. There is also language [FDCPA Section 805(a)(2)] stating that a collection agency cannot contact a consumer when they know it is inconvenient. Of course, the latter is very difficult to prove in court.
The bottom line is that if you send a cease communications letter to a collection agency, all communication, period, must stop. There is no need to spell out the situations in which communication is acceptable or send two separate communications. The request to cease communication will handle all communication situations. There has been a lively discussion about this over on our discussion boards.
By the way, the FDCPA clearly recognizes telephone contact as a legitimate and legal tool for collectors to use to contact consumers about the accounts they are collecting. The FDCPA was not enacted to give consumers a way to avoid their obligations nor to allow consumers to avoid all telephone contact. It was enacted to prevent illegal harassment from collection agencies.
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I’m not sure of what you are trying to say. First you declare that we can tell the bums to stop all communications period, then you close by pointing out that their obnoxious phone calls are legal…from which I must gather we cannot stop them…which is it?
yes, i am confused too. i had sent out my ceased and deceased letter but they have nto stopped calling me. they call my house all day, my work number, and my cell phone. i no longer answer any of my phones and i don’t open my mails anymore as i fear it. please advise.
Just FYI, Kristy is on vacation, I’m sure she’ll have something to say bout your questions when she returns in a few days!!
rember that it only applies to the collection company not the original creditor-so the original creditor can and probly will continue to call.
Found this looking for info on such & what my rights are…
I’ve sent such letters to a hospital I owed & received FOUR letters from them afterwards–which I returned unopened, with note written on them reminding them they’d been sent a cease communications letter.
They turned me over to collection agency, I sent THEM such letter & still got another letter from them.
I’m paying them what I can each month–I’m sorry but my rent, utilities, groceries, child care…family necessities are going to come first. If you can’t evict, repossess, or disconnect, you’re last on the list to me.
They don’t care about your situation. All they care about is their little bonus if they scare you into paying them off.
Luckily I DO have call blocking, I can block up to 12 phone numbers. I’ve blocked every number they’ve called me from & that I could find…that gives me some relief at least.
I’ve heard that once you send them the C&D- they decide there is no other way to collect from you, so they will then be spurred into filing suit against you in court–then you MUST deal with them and risk a judgement, which they can then take and file liens against you- possibly even attaching your wages. I’ve been advised that it is way better to just let them keep calling and sending mail and ignoring them/block their #’s so this doesn’t happen or you can buy more time.
If you ignore them, they will can still file a judgement against them. It’s better to be proactive. Request validation of the debt, which in most cases they won’t be able to provide. If they file a judgement, make sure that you respond. If you don’t, the judgement will be given in default.
Not to mention while requesting validation the calls have usually stopped for me. And as far as suits… what is more economically feasable– paying a lawyer 500-1000 to file suit (you’ll prolly end up paying court costs) on a debt that is only worth 200? absolutely not. They’ll sooner drop the debt (and put some big red marks all over your credit score). So the smaller the debt the less likely it is they will take you to court.
Thanks for input…I do pay the original creditors SOMETHING each month…it may not be as much as they want but I’m trying. Letters from the coll. agencies I return w/notation that they’ve been sent a c&d letter.
Years ago I had someone turn me to collections over $5. Yes you read right…five little dollars. I either didn’t know I owed it, or forgot until I got the c. agency letter.
I sent them the $5 w/ a smart-a… note saying something like “sorry I took so long to pay this outrageous debt but it took me months of scrimping & saving to come up w/the money” LOL
I know that NOT paying anything on medical bills, you can be sued b/c it happened to me. I wasn’t making any attempt to pay then; this time I’m trying to.
Can a collection agency get a judgement against you before your day in court ?
Please check your state laws, many times creditors can’t really get anything even after winning a suit against you.
I have had problems with collections agencies calling me on several occassions–but never for any debt of mine. On 3 different occassions I have had the bad luck of getting a cell phone # that had previously belonged to someone in collections and any attempts to rectify the situation ended in me receiving further harrassment. In the end I got different #s. Now I occassionally get collections calls for this woman who def used to have my # but I just am fed up with changing my number…is there anything else I can do besides ignore the calls? What are my rights in terms of C&D letters?
You can request in writing that the collection agency cease all telephone communications with you. That, however, doesn’t prevent them from legally pursuing a debt. They can file a judgement against you, if the debt is valid.
Its far better to be proactive in handling the debt, rather than avoiding it. If the debt in question doesn’t belong to you, you can request (again in writing) that the collection agency validate it. By law, they have to respond within 30 days.
A CREDIT CARD COMPANY IN EFFORT TO COLLECT HAS BEGUN CALLING MY 75 YEAR OLD MOTHER IN ANOTHER CITY. IS THIS COMMON PRACTICE?
My wife defaulted on her personal credit card. In the state where we live, her debts are not my debts. The collector only had the house phone number. I called them as a result of their notification letter from my cell phone and they recorded my cell phone and am now calling me for my wife’s debt on my cell phone. Is that legal since my cell phone is not under her name and this is not my debt?
@Bill – did you send the cease and desist letter to the collection agencies? The laws on cell phone calls are kind of murky these days.
@Kristy – thanks for the response. I did not send the C&D letter yet. One reason is I was wondering if I had more leverage if grabbing my cell phone number from their caller ID was a legal issue or not. My wife never gave them this number and it’s not her number. These guys are ruthless even to the point of calling after a payment agreement seeing if they can tighten the payment timeline.
Bill, no it doesn’t matter about the cell phone number. Send the letter.
@Kristy – I just started receiving calls from a collection agency that by their own admission shows last activity date of 2001 which makes it over 8 years old. The debt is outside of the statute of limitations for a suit and cannot be reported on my credit report. should I just send a C&D and be done with it or should I dispute it?
If it’s not on your credit report – then just send them a cease and desist letter.