Consumer Law

Poll Shows Most Consumers Don't Understand FDCPA Rights

By M. Stan Herring

The California Debt Blog has posted an article about a recent poll that shows most consumers don't know or fully understand the rights they are entitled to under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

The results of the poll showed:

-Only 25% of respondents were familiar with the FDCPA; -10% of respondents think that consumers have too much protection; -Over 40% of respondents had been contacted by a debt collector in the past 5 years; -Almost 90% of respondents said that the debt collector did not inform them of their rights; -Only a quarter of respondents were treated respectfully by the debt collector; -Almost half of the people said that they were threatened in some way by the collector; -More than three quarters of people were contacted by the collector after telling the collector not to call them.

It's important to remember that once you tell a debt collector to quit calling you, they are required to. If they then threaten you then it's a debt collection violation and grounds for a harassment lawsuit.

Debt collectors, not all of them, but a large number, do not seem to care about the law. The reasons: it is hard for the government to enforce and few individuals want to enforce their rights. They are usually intimidated and pushed into letting the debt collector run roughshod over them.

If you have had problems with debt collectors and have questions or concerns, feel free to contact us either through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

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Full post as published by Alabama Consumer Blog on April 02, 2010 (boomark / email).