Are you at least three months behind on your regular monthly debt payments? If so, you may eventually be contacted by a debt collector. While they are legally permitted to try collecting the debt, using bullying and harassment to do so is against the law.
Your Rights Under the FDCPA
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) was passed in 1977 to stop third-party debt collectors from bullying people into bankruptcy. This consumer protection law makes it illegal for debt collectors to use hostile and coercive tactics like those below.
- Using profane or obscene language
- Calling before 8:00 a.m. and after 9:00 p.m. in your time zone
- Demanding amounts that exceed the amount of the original debt
- Discussing the debt with anyone except you, your spouse, or your attorney
- Calling you at work when they know that your employer prohibits such calls
- Threatening action they cannot legally take or have no intention of taking
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Company Profile: Credit Control, LLC
If you are being called by Credit Control, LLC, information about the company is below.
Credit Control, LLC is a debt collection agency headquartered in Hazelwood, Missouri,. It was founded in 1989, has 200 to 500 employees, and is managed by its CEO, Richard Saffer. Records on file at the PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) website indicate that multiple consumers who felt they were being harassed by Credit Control, LLC sued the company in response.
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Alleged Violations against Credit Control, LLC
According to PACER, in or around late 2012 Credit Control, LLC started calling a Colorado resident in an attempt to collect an alleged debt. During one conversation, a collector allegedly told her that paying the debt was the only way to remove it from the credit bureau reports and that it would affect her credit until it was paid. She was also allegedly informed that she could only dispute the account with the credit bureaus and not the agency itself.
Feeling harassed by Credit Control, LLC, she hired a consumer attorney and sued the company for allegedly violating the FDCPA in the following ways:
- Using false, deceptive, and misleading means to collect a debt
- Using unfair and unconscionable means to collect a debt
The matter was later dismissed.
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Hire an FDCPA Attorney
The phone numbers for Credit Control, LLC are:
If you see any of these numbers on your caller ID, it means that you are being called by Credit Control, LLC. If they make misleading statements about how the debt will affect your future credit, hire a consumer attorney. Deliberate deception is illegal under the FDCPA, and if you file a claim against Credit Control, LLC and win, a judge could order the company to pay you $1,000 per violation as well as attorney’s fees, court costs, and any actual damages. It’s an expensive penalty that the agency could have avoided by treating you ethically in the first place.
*Case taken from PACER (www.pacer.gov). File number is Case 1:12-cv-03222-LTB from the United States District Court for the District of Colorado.
Disclaimer: The content of this article serves only to provide information and should not be constructed as legal advice. If you file a claim against Credit Control, LLC, or any other third-party collection agency, you may not be entitled to any compensation.