01/27/09 Beating debt collectors II

In yesterday's report, we learned that if you are in debt, there are federal laws associated with the fair debt collection practices act that prevent debt collectors from harassing you. In order to take on these people who are attempting to intimidate you, you have to know what your debt is and know what your rights are. You might be surprised about a very effective technique says Marion Horsley spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Agriculture. "I think a lot of people don't realize that there's actually something they can do about it. To stop contact you do have to write a letter to the debt collector telling him or her not to contact you again. And the act stipulates that after you've sent the letter the collector cannot communicate with you further except to say there will be no additional contact or to inform you that some specific action will be taken. Also being in debt and being harassed by a debt collector is really an unpleasant situation in so many different ways so we're just trying to let consumers know that there is a source of assistance for them and they need to invoke it. They need to understand it and they need to do what it says. Writing a letter these days is something that doesn't happen too often, people aren't too familiar with it, but that is the procedure that you must go through in order to get this whole thing going and to get debt collectors off your back fom a contact standpoint."