When you fill out a credit card or a personal loan application, you are required to submit personal information such as your address, cell number, and Social Security number. In most cases, you are required to provide a work phone number.
Submitting a work number gives a creditor a second option for getting in touch with you for several different reasons. Even if submitting a work phone number is optional, many consumers inexplicably submit a work number on a credit application.
Providing a work number can come back to bite consumers when they fall behind on making monthly debt payments. Creditors contact consumers at work when the companies cannot reach them at the primary phone number listed on a credit application.
This begs the question can McCarthy Burgess & Wolff contact you at work? The answer is there is not a law at any level that prevents the debt collection agency from calling you at work.
However, you can take steps to stop third party debt collector phone calls at work by using the rights granted to consumers by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).
How the FDCPA Helps Stop Bill Collector Phone Calls
Enacted by the United States Congress in 1977, the FDCPA represents an extensive list of consumer rights. Although you can ignore the phone calls a debt collection agency makes to you at work, all you are doing is further motivating the company to come after you with more purpose.
You have to be proactive and that means hiring a licensed consumer protection lawyer to fight for your FDCPA granted rights.
The FDCPA allows consumers to stop third party debt collector phone calls at home and at work. You should send a formal certified letter clearly explaining you want the work phone calls to stop.
By working with a FDCPA attorney, McCarthy Burgess & Wolff becomes fully aware that you are serious about your request to stop the work phone calls. Your lawyer might send a certified cease and desist letter, as well as invoke your state’s statute of limitations for debt collections.
If a favorable debt settlement with McCarthy Burgess & Wolff seems possible, your attorney will negotiate a settlement that ends the flurry of work phone calls.
Are You Entitled to Monetary Damages?
Working with a consumer protection lawyer adds one more benefit for consumers: the right to seek monetary damages for violations of the FDCPA. Physical and emotional distress are the two most common reasons consumers seek monetary damages.
However, you might suffer lost wages for a number of reasons that include lower productivity and fewer hours scheduled by your employer. A bill collector has the right to garnish wages to settle outstanding credit card and personal loan balances.
Each state imposes different restrictions for wage garnishment orders. Hiring a FDCPA lawyer ensures you understand the wage garnishment restrictions imposed by your state. Your attorney will also help you recover every penny unlawfully garnished by a debt collection agency.
Fighting back against a third party debt collector requires the legal expertise and the dogged determination of an accomplished consumer protection lawyer. Speak with an attorney to receive every right granted by the FDCPA.
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 McCarthy Burgess & Wolff or any other third-party collection agency, you may not be entitled to any compensation.