Mounting bills often leads to the triggering of excessive stress and anxiety. This is especially true for medical bill such as the treatment for an injury, as well as the extensive rehabilitation required to get you back on your feet again. However, many debt collection agencies do not care if you are suffering from health issues.
They want your money.
One way to get the money you owe on medical bills involves leaving voicemails at home, at work, and on a cell phone. The messages left on your voicemail system by a third party debt collector like Medical Financial Solutions can be soft in tone, but that does not mean the voicemails are considered legal by a monumental federal consumer protection law.
An Overview of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
Before September 20, 1977, consumers had no way to fight back legally against overly aggressive bill collectors. To balance the scale of justice, the United States Congress wrote the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) into federal law.
The consumer protection law prohibits dozens of debt collection tactics that were unchecked for decades before 1977. For example, bill collectors cannot call consumers anywhere between the hours of nine at night and eight in the morning.
![When Can Medical Financial Solutions Leave a Voicemail?*]()
How the FDCPA Handles Voicemails
The FDCPA clearly requires debt collection agencies to identify the name of the representative making a phone call, as well as the company that employs the representative. By leaving a voicemail, a third party debt collector creates an electronic trail that will demonstrate whether it followed the FDCPA provision requiring identification. If a bill collector presents the proper identification on a voicemail, it does not mean the company is free of all legal implications.
According to the FDCPA, it is illegal for a debt collection agency to contact third parties in regards to outstanding credit card and personal loan balances. For example, Medical Financial Solutions is not permitted to call one of your siblings in an attempt to embarrass you enough to take care of a debt. By leaving a voicemail, Medical Financial Solutions violated the third party provision of the FDCPA. It is extremely hard for a bill collector to leave a voicemail and not have a third party listen to the message.
Additional Voicemail Violations of the FDCPA
You should treat a voicemail left by a debt collection agency the same way you treat a live phone conversation with the same third party debt collector. Every FDCPA provision that applies to phone conversations also apply to voicemails. A bill collector such as Medical Financial Solutions is prohibited from leaving a voicemail that contains abusive language.
By using profanity, the debt collection agency is trying to intimidate you into paying off an outstanding credit card or a personal loan account. A third party debt collector cannot threaten you in any way, from threatening to confiscate private property to threatening legal action in a civil court.
Never allow a bill collector to leave harassing and intimidating voicemails at home and at work. Schedule a free initial consultation with an experienced FDCPA attorney to determine the best courser of legal action.
Additional Resources
*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 Medical Financial Solutions or any other third-party collection agency, you may not be entitled to any compensation.