As we have mentioned before,  a debt collector is not permitted to, in the process of collecting a debt use language that is abusive or harassing, false or misleading, or unfair or unconscionable.

But there are other things that a debt collector can do that are illegal.

Debt collectors are not permitted to contact a person at a time that they know is inconvenient.  It is presumed that 8:00 am to 9:00 pm are acceptable hours, but if you work the night shift, that is bad for you.  If you work the night shift, tell the debt collector that it is inconvenient to take calls from 8:00 am to 5:00 PM, since that is the time that you sleep. They should call from 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm, since that is when you are awake.

Debt collectors are not permitted to contact a person they know has a lawyer.  There are a few exceptions, like if the lawyer says its OK, or if a judge authorizes it, or the lawyer is non-responsive.  But they have to know that you are represented by a lawyer, and how to contact that lawyer.  We always recommend that you “lawyer up” in writing.  Give them your lawyer’s name and address. If your lawyer is willing to talk on the phone, give them the phone number. But do it in writing.  But remember- we always suggest Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested.  That way you can prove that you sent it, and they received it.  A sample letter “lawyering up” can be found here.

Debt collectors are not permitted to contact a person at work, if they know that the person cannot take that type of call (collection calls, or more generally personal calls) at work. The key here is that they have to know, or have a reason to know (know or should know).  How do you tell them that you can’t talk at work?  You just tell them.  Tell them on the phone, when they call.  Tell them in writing.  Follow up your telephone conversation with a letter.  Send it Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested.

Then, track the phone calls with our call log.  If you can prove that they received your letter, and called anyway, we can help you.

If you have been impacted by anything we mentioned here, you can make an appointment to see us.

NO FEE IN YOUR FDCPA CASE UNLESS WE RECOVER!!

OUR LEGAL FEES:

The rights afforded to you, as a consumer, under the FCRA and the FDCPA means that a corporation or party who has violated your rights may ultimately be made to pay for statutory damages, actual damages, and your legal fees. Therefore, if we agree to represent you in any case, you won’t pay any attorney’s fees unless we are successful and we recover on your behalf. We are here to serve and have assisted many consumers TO enforce their legal rights. Let us try and see if we can help you too. That means you pay no fee in your case unless we recover.

KCLS LIMITS THE GEOGRAPHY IN WHICH WE TAKE CASES.

YOU MUST BE A VIRGINIA RESIDENT.

If you are not a Virginia Resident, click here to find a lawyer near you.

Contact us by e-mail or by telephone or fax or US Mail.

You can call us: 804.673.4358

You can fax us: 804.673.4350

You can contact us by US MAIL:

Krumbein Consumer Legal Services, Inc.

1650 Willow Lawn Drive

Suite 300

Richmond, VA 23230

Debt Collectors employed by ACCT admitted to making the calls which included the use of racial slurs, swearing, and mental harassment.  All of this was over “Zombie Debt” of $200.00 that Mr. Jones had previously paid but his creditors refused to give him credit.

Even if you may or may not owe a company money they are not entitled to berate your in their attempts to collect a debt.  By law debt collectors must treat you with:

1. Truth
2. Dignity
3. Honesty
4. Respect.

If you are receiving calls from a debt collector and he or she is saying things that

you could not “Repeat to your Grandmother” then your rights under state and federal law are being violated.  It is time to act!   

Debt Collector harassment is illegal and can be stopped  Click Here for Help.

NO FEE IN YOUR FDCPA CASE UNLESS WE RECOVER!!

KCLS LIMITS THE GEOGRAPHY IN WHICH WE TAKE CASES.

YOU MUST BE A VIRGINIA RESIDENT.

If you are not a Virginia Resident, click here to find a lawyer near you.

OUR LEGAL FEES:

The rights afforded to you, as a consumer, under the FCRA and the FDCPA means that a corporation or party who has violated your rights may ultimately be made to pay for statutory damages, actual damages, and your legal fees. Therefore, if we agree to represent you in any case, you won’t pay any attorney’s fees unless we are successful and we recover on your behalf. We are here to serve and have assisted many consumers to enforce their legal rights. Let us try and see if we can help you too. That means you pay no fee in your case unless we recover.

Contact us by e-mail or by telephone or fax or US Mail.

You can call us: 804.673.4358

You can fax us: 804.673.4350

You can contact us by US MAIL:

Krumbein Consumer Legal Services, Inc.

1650 Willow Lawn Drive

Suite 300

Richmond, VA 23230

All references to code sections are courtesy of the Legislative Information System of Virginia, and are provided by leg1.state.va.us.

Debt Management and Debt Settlement is regulated by the Virginia Bureau of Financial Institutions.

Recently, the Oregon Attorney General cracked down on Credit Solutions of America, a debt settler based in Texas.  You can read the story here.

In that story, you will find that CSA has been scamming Oregon consumers for some time. They charge substantial upfront fees and encourage people to default on credit cards so they can afford the upfront fees.

This is also illegal in Virginia, however, the Virginia Attorney General has not yet come down on CSA.

Remember that with debt settlement, there is NO GUARANTEE that it will work.  KCLS does not settle debts, though we have been known to settle lawsuits.

Debt settlers promise that they can settled your debts.  There is no way to promise that truthfully.   No one can promise that a debt will be settled with a creditor, collector, or lawfirm.  There are only 2 ways to not pay for sure 1- Bankruptcy, and 2- win the collection lawsuit.

You can win a collections lawsuit because you do not owe the debt- ie: not yours, or billing errors.

You can win a collection lawsuit for technical reasons- ie: statute of limitations, hearsay, or other evidence problems.

You can also lose a collections lawsuit, even with a debt that is beyond the statute of limitations, with testimony that is based on hearsay, filled with billing errors, where the judge does not follow the law, or the rules of procedure or the rules of evidence.  Even good lawyers can lose in these circumstances.

The most important thing to know is that if you do not try to defend, you cannot win.  You must show up.  Most debt settlers try to settle the debt from afar.  They try to settle, while the collector proceeds to obtain judgment.

There are also some creditors and debt collectors that will not negotiate, and worse yet, when they understand that you have hired a debt settler, will sue, almost immediately, for the simple reason that they believe that the first one to sue will be one of the few to collect anything.  The truth is that this is a self-fulfilling prophesy.

In summary, beware of debt settlers, it is very hard for them to comply with all of the provisions of the Virginia Credit Counseling Act (VCCA), Virginia Code Sections 6.1-363.2 through 6.1-363.26.  Violations of the VCCA can be enforced by consumers who have been duped, pursuant to the Virginia Consumer Protection Act (VCPA), as VCCA specifies at Section 6.1-363.26 that any violation of VCCA is a violation of Section 59.1-200 of the VCPA.

If you have been impacted by anything we mentioned here, you can make an appointment to see us.

NO FEE IN YOUR VCCA/VCPA CASE UNLESS WE RECOVER!!

KCLS LIMITS THE GEOGRAPHY IN WHICH WE TAKE CASES.

YOU MUST BE A VIRGINIA RESIDENT.

If you are not a Virginia Resident, click here to find a lawyer near you.

OUR LEGAL FEES:

The rights afforded to you, as a consumer, under the Virginia Credit Counseling Act and the Virginia Consumer Protection Act means that a corporation or party who has violated your rights may ultimately be made to pay for statutory damages, actual damages, and your legal fees. Therefore, if we agree to represent you in any case, you won’t pay any attorney’s fees unless we are successful and we recover on your behalf. We are here to serve and have assisted many consumers TO enforce their legal rights. Let us try and see if we can help you too. That means you pay no fee in your case unless we recover.

Contact us by e-mail or by telephone or fax or US Mail.

You can call us: 804.673.4358

You can fax us: 804.673.4350

You can contact us by US MAIL:

Krumbein Consumer Legal Services, Inc.

1650 Willow Lawn Drive

Suite 300

Richmond, VA 23230

CONSUMER REPORTING AGENCY REINVESTIGATIONS and The Fair Credit Reporting Act

All references to code sections are courtesy of the Legal Information Institute at Law.Cornell.edu.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires the Credit Reporting Agencies, or Consumer Reporting Agencies to conduct a reinvestigation and the procedures around that reinvestigation.

The section that discusses the requirements for reinvestigation of a disputed item is 15 U.S.C. §1681i.

As usual, we start with the statute.  Please note that we will only be reviewing the section on reinvestigations, so the rest of the section will not be reprinted or discussed.

(5) Treatment of inaccurate or unverifiable information

(A) In general

If, after any reinvestigation under paragraph (1) of any information disputed by a consumer, an item of the information is found to be inaccurate or incomplete or cannot be verified, the consumer reporting agency shall—

(i) promptly delete that item of information from the file of the consumer, or modify that item of information, as appropriate, based on the results of the reinvestigation; and

(ii) promptly notify the furnisher of that information that the information has been modified or deleted from the file of the consumer.

This means that, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the consumer credit reporting agency must, after reviewing the credit file and information that you provided in conjunction with your request for reinvestigation, must remove the disputed information, if the information cannot be confirmed.

For example- If you have a credit card or perhaps a line of credit with a bank, and the bank reports that you are late one month.  You have proof that you sent payment, and that they cashed your check on or before the due date.

In order to preserve your rights, you must send your dispute to the consumer credit reporting agencies, and provide them with all the information they need to review this account.  If the consumer credit reporting agency cannot verify that the information is accurate, they are required to either delete the information or alternatively, to modify the reporting of the tradeline in the credit file to show that you were not late, and notify the furnisher of the information (your creditor) that they have removed or modified the information in your credit file.  Under a different provision, they are required to have specific procedures to prevent the inaccurate information from reappearing in your credit file.

If the information is accurate, it is proper for the information to remain, so it is important to remember that just because you dispute, and they deal with your dispute incorrectly, does not mean that you have a right to sue.  The Fair Credit Reporting Act is NOT like the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.  They must report inaccurate, or accurate but misleading and incomplete, information in order to have a right to sue at all.

If you have been impacted by anything we mentioned here, you can make an appointment to see us.

NO FEE IN YOUR FCRA CASE UNLESS WE RECOVER!!

KCLS LIMITS THE GEOGRAPHY IN WHICH WE TAKE CASES.

YOU MUST BE A VIRGINIA RESIDENT.

If you are not a Virginia Resident, click here to find a lawyer near you.

YOUR LEGAL FEES:

The rights afforded to you, as a consumer, under the FCRA and the FDCPA means that a corporation or party who has violated your rights may ultimately be made to pay for statutory damages, actual damages, and your legal fees. Therefore, if we agree to represent you in any case, you won’t pay any attorney’s fees unless we are successful and we recover on your behalf. We are here to serve and have assisted many consumers TO enforce their legal rights. Let us try and see if we can help you too. That means you pay no fee in your case unless we recover.

Contact us by e-mail or by telephone or fax or US Mail.

You can call us: 804.673.4358

You can fax us: 804.673.4350

You can contact us by US MAIL:

Krumbein Consumer Legal Services, Inc.

1650 Willow Lawn Drive

Suite 300

Richmond, VA 23230

As usual, we start with the text of the statute.

15 USC §1692c(c) Ceasing communication

If a consumer notifies a debt collector in writing that the consumer refuses to pay a debt or that the consumer wishes the debt collector to cease further communication with the consumer, the debt collector shall not communicate further with the consumer with respect to such debt, except—

(1) to advise the consumer that the debt collector’s further efforts are being terminated;

(2) to notify the consumer that the debt collector or creditor may invoke specified remedies which are ordinarily invoked by such debt collector or creditor; or

(3) where applicable, to notify the consumer that the debt collector or creditor intends to invoke a specified remedy.

If such notice from the consumer is made by mail, notification shall be complete upon receipt.

This means that, under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, if you inform a debt collector that you wish for them to stop collecting from you, they are required to do so.  They are then prohibited, by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, from MOST other contact.  They can let you know that they are complying with your requests.  They can let you know that they may do certain things that are legal,  that are collection efforts- repossession, foreclosure, lawsuit.  And they can take those actions.

For most collectors, there is very little that they can do in response that complies with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, but one must be wary of collections agencies that are lawyers.  Once should be particularly aware of those firms that regularly sue in the local courts where you are located.  Those collectors, one should think carefully before deciding that you wish to tell them to cease collections efforts, as they may decide that they wish to sue to collect.

Because of this distinction, it is very important to contact a consumer protection lawyer, who is familiar with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, in your community before taking this kind of action.  If you are in Virginia, we are glad to assist you.  If you are not in Virginia, please visit the National Association of Consumer Advocates Find An Attorney webpage.

If you have been impacted by anything we mentioned here, you can make an appointment to see us.

NO FEE IN YOUR FDCPA CASE UNLESS WE RECOVER!!

KCLS LIMITS THE GEOGRAPHY IN WHICH WE TAKE CASES.

YOU MUST BE A VIRGINIA RESIDENT.

If you are not a Virginia Resident, click here to find a lawyer near you.

OUR LEGAL FEES:

The rights afforded to you, as a consumer, under the FCRA and the FDCPA means that a corporation or party who has violated your rights may ultimately be made to pay for statutory damages, actual damages, and your legal fees. Therefore, if we agree to represent you in any case, you won’t pay any attorney’s fees unless we are successful and we recover on your behalf. We are here to serve and have assisted many consumers TO enforce their legal rights. Let us try and see if we can help you too. That means you pay no fee in your case unless we recover.

Contact us by e-mail or by telephone or fax or US Mail.

You can call us: 804.673.4358

You can fax us: 804.673.4350

You can contact us by US MAIL:

Krumbein Consumer Legal Services, Inc.

1650 Willow Lawn Drive

Suite 300

Richmond, VA 23230

YOU MUST BE A VIRGINIA RESIDENT.

If you are not a Virginia Resident, click here to find a lawyer near you.

DEBT SETTLERS ARE BAD FOR YOU.  DEBT MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS ARE DEBT SETTLEMENT IN DISGUISE.

All references to code sections are courtesy of the Legislative Information System of Virginia, and are provided by leg1.state.va.us.

Debt Management and Debt Settlement is regulated by the Virginia Bureau of Financial Institutions. Debt settlers often use the tactic of telling you that you can settle your debts for less than you owe.  The new tactic is to claim that the Obama Administration has passed a new law that says that you have the right to settle your debts for less than the full amount owed.

THIS IS FALSE INFORMATION.

You can settle, but you do not have a RIGHT to settle.  Some, but not all, credit card companies will settle for less than the full amount owed because the options for them are a total loss, or a partial settlement.

The Debt Settlers may also tell you that settling your debts through them can improve your credit score.

THIS IS FALSE INFORMATION.

A settled debt is reported as status 7, settled for less than full value.  This is HIGHLY damaging to your credit report.

But what they also don’t tell you is that just being IN a debt settlement plan lowers your score almost as much as filing for Bankruptcy.

The Debt Settlers may also tell you that they can get a creditor or debt collector to leave you alone- stop calling, stop writing, stop suing.

THIS IS FALSE INFORMATION.

Virginia law has very little protections from creditors.

Under Virginia law, a creditor can call during hours prohibited to debt collectors under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (8am to 9pm).

Under Virginia law, a creditor can contact third parties, like family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers, and tell them about your debts, even though a debt collector is prohibited under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Under Virginia law, a creditor can contact you, even though they know you are represented by counsel, even though a debt collector is prohibited by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Under Virginia law, and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, almost nothing can stop a suit from being filed by either a creditor or a debt collector.

Under Virginia law, once the suit is filed, only an attorney can defend a lawsuit, and stand a chance of dealing with a creditor or debt collector in court.

Debt settlers and debt management plans do not have attorneys on staff to deal with violations of law under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, to defend consumers who are being sued, and to protect your rights.

ONLY AN ATTORNEY LICENSED IN VIRGINIA CAN STOP THESE ACTIONS IN VIRGINIA.

But when the debt settlers tell you that they can, they may be violating the Virginia Credit Counseling Act (VCCA), Virginia Code Sections 6.1-363.2 through 6.1-363.26.  Violations of the VCCA can be enforced by consumers who have been duped, pursuant to the Virginia Consumer Protection Act (VCPA), as VCCA specifies at Section 6.1-363.26 that any violation of VCCA is a violation of Section 59.1-200 of the VCPA.

If you have been impacted by anything we mentioned here, you can make an appointment to see us.

NO FEE IN YOUR VCCA/VCPA CASE UNLESS WE RECOVER!!

OUR LEGAL FEES:

The rights afforded to you, as a consumer, under the Virginia Credit Counseling Act and the Virginia Consumer Protection Act means that a corporation or party who has violated your rights may ultimately be made to pay for statutory damages, actual damages, and your legal fees. Therefore, if we agree to represent you in any case, you won’t pay any attorney’s fees unless we are successful and we recover on your behalf. We are here to serve and have assisted many consumers TO enforce their legal rights. Let us try and see if we can help you too. That means you pay no fee in your case unless we recover.

Contact us by e-mail or by telephone or fax or US Mail.

You can call us: 804.673.4358

You can fax us: 804.673.4350

You can contact us by US MAIL:

Krumbein Consumer Legal Services, Inc.

1650 Willow Lawn Drive

Suite 300

Richmond, VA 23230

YOU MUST BE A VIRGINIA RESIDENT.

If you are not a Virginia Resident, click here to find a lawyer near you.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act is designed to protect consumers from inaccurate or outdated information on credit reports.

CONSUMER REPORTING AGENCY REINVESTIGATIONS and The Fair Credit Reporting Act

All references to code sections are courtesy of the Legal Information Institute at Law.Cornell.edu.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires the Credit Reporting Agencies, or Consumer Reporting Agencies to conduct a reinvestigation and the procedures around that reinvestigation.

The section that discusses the requirements for reinvestigation of a disputed item is 15 U.S.C. §1681i.

As usual, we start with the statute.  Please note that we will only be reviewing the section on reinvestigations, so the rest of the section will not be reprinted or discussed.

(4) Consideration of consumer information

In conducting any reinvestigation under paragraph (1) with respect to disputed information in the file of any consumer, the consumer reporting agency shall review and consider all relevant information submitted by the consumer in the period described in paragraph (1)(A) with respect to such disputed information.

How does this impact you?

The Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies have a duty to consider the information that you provide them.  That means that if you send them a copy of a judgment order that you do not owe the plaintiff money, they are obligated to consider that information.

That also means that when you send a ID Theft Affidavit, or a police report, they must consider that information.  The ID Theft Affidavit and police report are less reliable, as people make mistakes.  They can have old accounts that they do not remember, and thereby be mistaken, so they logically cannot just take your word for it.  They have to CONSIDER your information.  That means that if you provide a affidavit, or some other document with a comparable signature, they should be comparing the signatures.

This obviously comes into play much more with inaccuracies of the “not mine” type.

However, the incorrect status cases also have this issue.  For example, if the credit card company claims that you were late, or did not get a payment during a certain month, then if you provide a copy of the statement from that month (showing the minimum payment due and the due date) and the cleared check, showing that they got at least the minimum payment, on or before the due date.  With that information, the credit reporting agency has all the information necessary to show that the payment was made on time.  If you only provide a copy of the check, they do not have all, but they do have information they must CONSIDER, so they have to actually investigate.

But how does this play out in reality? Do you think that the Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies consider the information that you provide?

Our experience, and the experience of many courts around the country show that the opposite is true.  In Cushman v. Trans Union Corp, a US 3^rd Circuit Court of Appeals opinion from 1997, the court explained that a Consumer Reporting Agency (in that case, TransUnion) could not merely parrot the information of the creditor who was furnishing the data.  In Apodaca v. Discover, a case from the District of New Mexico, the district court held the same against Equifax.  In Whitesides v. Equifax Credit Information Services, Inc., the court in the Western District of Louisiana followed the same line against Experian.  In Crabill v. Trans Union, LLC, 7^th Circuit Court of Appeals, 2001, again, the court found that Trans Union was “parroting”.

While it is possible that the Consumer Credit Reporting Agency has actually looked at your documents, it is unlikely.

HOWEVER WE MUST STRESS THAT THE INFORMATION MUST BE INACCURATE OR THERE IS NO CASE AT ALL.  A technical violation is not a violation.  See, for example, the case of Deandrade v. Trans Union, LLC, 1^st Circuit Court of Appeals, 2008, in which the consumer had sued his mortgage company under a different statute, to undo his mortgage, claiming there were errors. Before that case was resolved, he sued TransUnion as they continued to report that the mortgage was still due.  Because the underlying case had not been resolved, it was unclear that the consumer had no liability for the mortgage, and therefore, it was reasonable for the Consumer Credit Reporting Agency to continue to report that he owed money, albeit with a notation that the account was disputed.

If you have been impacted by anything we mentioned here, you can make an appointment to see us.

NO FEE IN YOUR FCRA CASE UNLESS WE RECOVER!!

OUR LEGAL FEES:

The rights afforded to you, as a consumer, under the FCRA and the FDCPA means that a corporation or party who has violated your rights may ultimately be made to pay for statutory damages, actual damages, and your legal fees. Therefore, if we agree to represent you in any case, you won’t pay any attorney’s fees unless we are successful and we recover on your behalf. We are here to serve and have assisted many consumers TO enforce their legal rights. Let us try and see if we can help you too. That means you pay no fee in your case unless we recover.

Contact us by e-mail or by telephone or fax or US Mail.

You can call us: 804.673.4358

You can fax us: 804.673.4350

You can contact us by US MAIL:

Krumbein Consumer Legal Services, Inc.

1650 Willow Lawn Drive

Suite 300

Richmond, VA 23230

YOU MUST BE A VIRGINIA RESIDENT.

If you are not a Virginia Resident, click here to find a lawyer near you.

How can a debt collector communicate with a third party under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act?

As usual, we start with the text of the statute.

15 USC §1692c(b) Communication with third parties

Except as provided in section 1692b of this title, without the prior consent of the consumer given directly to the debt collector, or the express permission of a court of competent jurisdiction, or as reasonably necessary to effectuate a postjudgment judicial remedy, a debt collector may not communicate, in connection with the collection of any debt, with any person other than the consumer, his attorney, a consumer reporting agency if otherwise permitted by law, the creditor, the attorney of the creditor, or the attorney of the debt collector.

How is this important to you?

This one is actually very simple.  A Debt Collector may not communicate with any third party about your debt, except for the purposes of location information.

A Debt Collector is not permitted to contact your family or friends or neighbors to discuss your debts.  That would violate at least two provisions of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

A Debt Collector is not permitted to contact your family, friends or neighbors, once they know where you are.  Contacts like that violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

A Debt Collector is not permitted to “verify employment” with your employer.  This also may violate more than one provision of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

As you can see, this is a remarkably simple provision that provides a fair amount of protections.

In times past, contact like this might have been the tort of invasion of privacy, but Virginia has done away with this tort for most purposes.  At least in Virginia, you have no right to privacy, only a right not to have your likeness used for commercial purposes without your consent.

If you have been impacted by anything we mentioned here, you can make an appointment to see us.

NO FEE IN YOUR FDCPA CASE UNLESS WE RECOVER!!

OUR LEGAL FEES:

The rights afforded to you, as a consumer, under the FCRA and the FDCPA means that a corporation or party who has violated your rights may ultimately be made to pay for statutory damages, actual damages, and your legal fees. Therefore, if we agree to represent you in any case, you won’t pay any attorney’s fees unless we are successful and we recover on your behalf. We are here to serve and have assisted many consumers TO enforce their legal rights. Let us try and see if we can help you too. That means you pay no fee in your case unless we recover.

Contact us by e-mail or by telephone or fax or US Mail.

You can call us: 804.673.4358

You can fax us: 804.673.4350

You can contact us by US MAIL:

Krumbein Consumer Legal Services, Inc.

1650 Willow Lawn Drive

Suite 300

Richmond, VA 23230

YOU MUST BE A VIRGINIA RESIDENT.

If you are not a Virginia Resident, click here to find a lawyer near you.

How can a debt collector collect contact information under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act?

The law on how a collector may collect information about your location is found in 15 U.S.C. §1692b

A debt collector may only contact a third party if s/he follows the rules.

They have to 1- Identify him/her self, state only that they are verifying location information, and only identify their employer if asked; 2- NOT state that the consumer owes a debt; 3-not call more than once unless there are specific exceptions; 4- not communicate by postcard; 5- not use any information on the outside of the envelope that indicates that they are debt collectors; 6- communicate with anyone after they know the consumer is represented by an attorney.

So what does this mean for you?

There are 2 things that collectors like to do that are violations of this (and other provisions) of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Block parties and cube-farm parties (also known as office parties).

A block party is where a debt collector calls the neighbors all around a consumer and asks for them to carry some information to you, asking you to call. They call the neighbor on the left, the right, across the street and both diagonals.

An office party or cube-farm party is where they call your co-workers, and ask for them to pass you a message.  It is the same thing as a block party, only at work.

Why do they do this?  Because it is VERY embarrassing to have your neighbors know that you have a debt collector calling.  They are going to ask you why this person is calling.  Clearly, this is intrusive, and you don’t have to answer, but the collectors know that you will do almost anything to stop the calls- like pay.  So the question becomes- why are they calling?  It’s not to locate you.  They know where you live or work.  They can write to you, or call your home or cell phone, or work phone.  It is for the sheer embarrassment factor of all those calls.  The embarrassment, and hurt.  Not only does this violate the section of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act on communication, it may also be harassment or abuse and an unfair and deceptive act under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

If you have been impacted by anything we mentioned here, you can make an appointment to see us.

NO FEE IN YOUR FDCPA CASE UNLESS WE RECOVER!!

OUR LEGAL FEES:

The rights afforded to you, as a consumer, under the FCRA and the FDCPA means that a corporation or party who has violated your rights may ultimately be made to pay for statutory damages, actual damages, and your legal fees. Therefore, if we agree to represent you in any case, you won’t pay any attorney’s fees unless we are successful and we recover on your behalf. We are here to serve and have assisted many consumers TO enforce their legal rights. Let us try and see if we can help you too. That means you pay no fee in your case unless we recover.

Contact us by e-mail or by telephone or fax or US Mail.

You can call us: 804.673.4358

You can fax us: 804.673.4350

You can contact us by US MAIL:

Krumbein Consumer Legal Services, Inc.

1650 Willow Lawn Drive

Suite 300

Richmond, VA 23230

YOU MUST BE A VIRGINIA RESIDENT.

If you are not a Virginia Resident, click here to find a lawyer near you.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act is designed to protect consumers from inaccurate or outdated information on credit reports.

CONSUMER REPORTING AGENCY REINVESTIGATIONS and The Fair Credit Reporting Act

All references to code sections are courtesy of the Legal Information Institute at Law.Cornell.edu.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires the Credit Reporting Agencies, or Consumer Reporting Agencies to conduct a reinvestigation and the procedures around that reinvestigation.

The section that discusses the requirements for reinvestigation of a disputed item is 15 U.S.C. §1681i.

As usual, we start with the statute.  Please note that we will only be reviewing the section on reinvestigations, so the rest of the section will not be reprinted or discussed.

(2) Prompt notice of dispute to furnisher of information

(A) In general

Before the expiration of the 5-business-day period beginning on the date on which a consumer reporting agency receives notice of a dispute from any consumer or a reseller in accordance with paragraph (1), the agency shall provide notification of the dispute to any person who provided any item of information in dispute, at the address and in the manner established with the person. The notice shall include all relevant information regarding the dispute that the agency has received from the consumer or reseller.

(B) Provision of other information

The consumer reporting agency shall promptly provide to the person who provided the information in dispute all relevant information regarding the dispute that is received by the agency from the consumer or the reseller after the period referred to in subparagraph (A) and before the end of the period referred to in paragraph (1)(A).

What does this mean for you?

That the consumer [credit] reporting agency must forward the information that you provide to them on to the furnisher.  It is not enough for them to take your dispute, and communicate the substance, but they must actually forward all the relevant information.

For example, if you dispute that an item (tradeline) on your credit file (credit report) is yours, they should send a copy of your dispute to the furnisher, so that the furnisher can compare signatures.  The key to an account that is identity theft account is that someone else took your name, and social security number, and signed their signature. Their signature will not be the same as yours.  If the furnisher has a copy of the signature they can look and compare, but if the consumer (credit) reporting agency does not send them a copy, they cannot compare.

Our advice is to send a separate dispute letter to the furnisher of the information, because the nature of the dispute is not always easy to distill into a dispute form.  If you let the furnisher know, AS WELL AS THE CONSUMER REPORTING AGENCY, then there is an ability to actually review documents.

Note that there is no private right of action to sue a furnisher for not investigating when you directly dispute, but, it is an additional source of information that they should consider.  See, eg: Alabran v. Capital One, E.D. VA, 3:04-cv-935, 12/8/05 (document 87).

If you have been impacted by anything we mentioned here, you can make an appointment to see us.

NO FEE IN YOUR FCRA CASE UNLESS WE RECOVER!!

OUR LEGAL FEES:

The rights afforded to you, as a consumer, under the FCRA and the FDCPA means that a corporation or party who has violated your rights may ultimately be made to pay for statutory damages, actual damages, and your legal fees. Therefore, if we agree to represent you in any case, you won’t pay any attorney’s fees unless we are successful and we recover on your behalf. We are here to serve and have assisted many consumers TO enforce their legal rights. Let us try and see if we can help you too. That means you pay no fee in your case unless we recover.

Contact us by e-mail or by telephone or fax or US Mail.

You can call us: 804.673.4358

You can fax us: 804.673.4350

You can contact us by US MAIL:

Krumbein Consumer Legal Services, Inc.

1650 Willow Lawn Drive

Suite 300

Richmond, VA 23230