Is Resurgent Capital Services Calling You?*

Is Resurgent Capital Services calling you? Here’s what you need to know.

Any one of a number of things could cause you to fall behind in your bill payments. Illness, injury, and family complications such as divorce can all make demands on your finances, and result in missed mortgage, student loan, and credit card payments. Once the arrears reach a certain amount, your creditors could send the accounts to a third-party debt collector, which can make your problems worse.

When it comes to getting your money, debt collectors are legendary for their persistence. Many of them are not exactly pleasant to deal with, either.

Your Rights Under the FDCPA

In 1977 the US government had to step in and pass the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, or FDCPA, to limit the professional actions and behaviors of third-party debt collectors. The FDCPA prohibits tactics like the following when committed while collecting or attempting to collect a debt:

• Using profane and obscene language
• Yelling and calling people names such as deadbeat, loser, etc.
• Using the phone to harass someone, such as calling and hanging up repeatedly
• Calling outside of the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. in the consumer’s time zone
• Contacting someone at work after being advised that the person cannot take such calls
• Talking to uninvolved parties such as the person’s friends, family, and co-workers about the debt
• Threatening to have the person arrested or jailed for not paying the debt

The FDCPA also grants you the right to dispute any debts, demand its validation, and be represented by an attorney in the matter. You can even tell a third-party debt collector that you want no further contact from them.

Unfortunately, not every debt collector respects FDCPA-imposed limits. Resurgent Capital Services is a collection agency located in Greenville, South Carolina. It was established in 1998 and employs a staff of approximately 500. Records kept by the PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) website include multiple instances of Resurgent Capital Services being sued for allegedly breaching the FDCPA while attempting to collect debts from consumers.

Alleged FDCPA Violations

On March 31, 2011, Resurgent Capital Services contacted a California resident to collect a debt that he allegedly owed. He informed them that he disputed the debt as he did not owe it. After the calls allegedly continued, during which threats were allegedly made to affect his credit, he retained a consumer attorney and filed a complaint in the US District Court.

The complaint accused Resurgent Capital Services of violating the FDCPA in the following ways:

• Communicating or threatening to communicate credit information which is known or which should be known to be false (§1692e(8))
• Trying to collect an amount that is not expressly authorized by the agreement creating the debt (§1692f(1))
• Trying to collect an amount that is not permitted by law (§1692f(1)).

The matter was later dismissed.

The phone number for Resurgent Capital Services is 1-888-665-0374. If it appears on your caller ID, it means that a debt collector is trying to contact you. If they insist that you pay a debt that is not yours, or, if it is yours, ask for an unauthorized repayment amount, you are within your rights to dispute it and ask for no further contact.

At that point Resurgent Capital Services is no longer legally permitted to contact you directly unless it’s to report that the matter is being dropped or an action is commencing against you.

Should they ignore your request, contact a consumer attorney. Harassing consumers is against the law, and you may be compensated up to $1,000 per FDCPA violation as well as actual damages, court costs, and attorney’s fees. Some debt collectors need this reminder that they are never above the law.

*Case taken from PACER (www.pacer.gov). File number is 3:11-cv-01553-BEN-POR from United States District Court, Southern District of California

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 Resurgent Capital Services, or any other third-party collection agency, you may not be entitled to any compensation.