The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act was put into place to protect residents of Eugene and elsewhere from being abused, harassed and mistreated by companies that are trying to collect debts. If you have debt that was sent to collections, you may be familiar with harassing phone calls and letters by creditors, which may cause you a great deal of stress and, in some cases, could be illegal.
The Balance states that you have the right to stop harassing communication by sending a cease and desist letter to third-party collection agencies. In previous posts, we have explained how the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is meant to protect you from numerous abusive collection practices. However, you might not have heard the term “cease and desist” before when it comes to debt collection. Cease and desist letters are often used in business disputes and sent by one business to another party to stop alleged infringement, libel, trade secret leaking and other harmful acts. This type of letter may also be effective against collection agencies, since you are letting a debt collector know that you do not wish to be contacted again and you intend to take legal action if the collector does not comply according to the FDCPA.
After a collector has received your letter, the company may contact you one more time to inform you of any further action it intends to make. Any additional communication on the agency’s part may be violating the FDCPA. Since dealing with debt collectors may be complicated, the information in this blog is meant to be general and should not be considered legal advice.
