If you are tired of having bill collectors calling you up day after day to collect on your old payday loans, you are far from alone. If you have defaulted on a payday loan, often the lender will attempt to collect the overdue bill. However, if that doesn’t work, these accounts are often sold off to a third-party debt collector. These collectors will often stop at nothing to persuade you to pay your bill in full.
The good news is there are several ways to handle these bill collectors who seem insistent on interrupting your life. We’ll go over some of the things you may not know about collectors that can help in your quest for peace, as well as the best ways to handle your payday loan debt situation to get things back under control.
Work Harassment
If you have a bill collector who is bothering you at work, you have a right under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to tell them that your employer does not allow you to talk with them at work and they must stop calling you there. You can either tell them the next time they call your place of employment or send a request in writing. Either way, if they continue to call your workplace, they are doing something illegal.
Early or Late Calls
In addition to being required to leave you in peace at work, debt collectors also cannot contact you before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. unless you have given them specific instructions that they should. Everyone is entitled to time to relax, which these laws speak to. That said, a collector can still email, text, or otherwise contact you during this period, but there should be no calls. It is part of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
Nix Repeated Calls
Many people don’t realize this but continued repeated calls on a single day are considered harassment by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and are, therefore, not allowed. There is no specific number of calls that are allowed, but if you are being called over and over, it’s likely not allowed. This is especially true if you have spoken with the debt collector and ended the call or asked them not to call you again. If you feel a debt collector is going too far, you can report them to the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau.
Threats or Profane Language
This is something else that is not allowed based on the FTC. A collector is not allowed to use profane language or threaten you for any reason. They also may not make a false implication that you have committed a crime by failing to pay off your debt. Also, verbal abuse or calling you names is forbidden. These are things that can be reported if they occur.
Written Notice of Debt
A debt collector is required to send you written notice of any debt. They must also do this within five days of first contacting you. The document they send should explain exactly how much you owe while offering the name of the creditor on the account. In addition to that, the notice will provide information about what you can do if you feel you do not owe money. If you send a letter back asking for no contact, the collector must stop calling you. This does not, however, prevent the collector from suing you if the debt is owed and they wish to escalate matters.
Verification of Disputed Debt
If you dispute your debt, either because the amount is incorrect or because you believe you don’t owe the party money, the payday loan debt collector has to stop calling until the situation has been investigated. All debts will need to be verified provided you dispute the debt in writing. If a debt collector has verification and can send it to you, they can begin to call you again.
Payday Loan Consolidation
All of the options above are an excellent way to ensure that debt collectors are legitimate and not going beyond legal boundaries. However, if you do owe the debt, they don’t provide what you most need – help and support. In this case, there is another option, one that can help you save money and regain your sanity. It takes a little work and won’t eliminate your debts, but it can make it easier to repay them and knock off a substantial amount of interest and late fees. This option is payday loan consolidation.
This type of consolidation primarily involves paying off the payday loans that you currently have and instead pulling them into one account. This allows you to make a single payment each month, rather than being required to pay each loan on a different day with a different interest rate and different late fees tacked on. It frees up your month so you can properly budget for your debt, as well as all the other bills you have to deal with.
Debt consolidation has many benefits beyond just dropping to a single monthly payment for your payday loans. We’ll go over a few of these below:
- Having extra money from not paying additional payments will allow you to establish a budget that isn’t based on a constantly changing payment schedule.
- By consolidating your payday loans, you may end up paying fewer late charges. This is especially true if you have been juggling many loans and missing some due dates.
- Your interest rate will typically be lowered by switching to consolidation, and you won’t have to determine the different rates for different loans from various companies.
- Frustrating phone calls will no longer plague you as your loans will be paid and you will no longer need to deal with payday loan collectors.
If loan consolidation is something that you are interested in, you can find out much more at the Real PDL Help website. Skilled professionals are available to help you determine your options and guide you to a more financially secure future. Feel free to drop a line and receive a free consultation from one of our advisors.