Stop Debt Collectors provides practical, step-by-step, easy-to-follow advice and information. You will learn:

• The very first thing you must do when a debt collector contacts you.
• What to say (and not say) when you can't afford to pay what a debt collector demands.
• How to settle your debts for less.
• What debt collectors can really do to collect the money that you owe.
• Common high-pressure tactics collectors use and how to fight back.
• How and when to hire an attorney to help you deal with a debt collector.

Stop Debt Collectors
eBook only $19.95

Plus, free mp3 downloads of the original audio interview with your purchase of the eBook. These are provided to you at no additional cost.

After clicking [ Checkout Here! ] you will be taken to our secure shopping chart to complete your purchase

Free Collection
Contact Worksheet

This free Collection Contact Worksheet allows you to keep track of your conversations with debt collectors. We recommend you use it every time you talk with a debt collector, and use it in conjunction with the book Stop Debt Collectors: How to Protect Your Rights and Resolve Your Debts.

You will need the Free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this worksheet.

Stop Debt Collectors!

Don't put up with harassment, threats,
or abusive behavior from debt collectors.

Learn how to leverage your legal rights when dealing with debt collectors so you can resolve your debts and get on with your life.

Startling Facts About Debt And Debt Collectors

Consumer Debt is Growing at Alarming Rates

According to Experian, in January 2008, consumers owed on average $16,600 on credit accounts and installment loans. This represents a $1,100.00 increase over the average just 9 months prior. Also during that time period the number of accounts per consumer that were at least one payment past due had increased to an average of 1.01.

Testimonials

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Stop Debt Collectors provided me with the information I needed to make sure the debt collectors were not violating my consumer rights as to harassing phone calls and messages.

- MK

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We stopped all the harassing phone calls

- Michael

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Excellent information. Sample letters have been very helpful in many cases.

- Dale

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I've found the Stop Debt Collectors book extremely helpful. It's very difficult for people who aren't involved in debt collection or lawyer proceedings to know which way to go in their pursuit of working with debt collectors.& Your book has been so important to me.

- Robert

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Not that long ago, after I'd resolved numerous debt collection problems I was having I received a call from my sister-in-law in another state.  My brother is a highly-skilled worker and can be gone weeks at a time on assignment, so on occasion my sister-in-law just calls to touch bases.

On this occasion she was tearful and afraid to call my brother. It seems a medical procedure she'd had some time ago was finally refused by their insurance provider. As the date of service was so old the hospital threw it directly to collections who threw it to their attorney who sent a letter and a initial court documents requesting a hearing for judgment.

As a practicing paralegal (in another field) in the state I live in and using information in the book provided by John Ventura I drafted an answer to the complaint. My sister-in-law represented herself pro se before the judge and who not only set aside the complaint and ordered the collection agency to cease and desist, he sent a demand to the Hospital and Health Insurance Company asking THEM to explain why they act this way. Rather than enter into litigation in either situation, the hospital wrote off the entire debt as far as my sister-in-law was concerned. She received a call from her State's Attorney General regarding the matter, apparently that agency will be shut down shortly.

Thank you!

- Jim

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How to stop debt collectors has gotten my son out of debt for a charge he had on a credit card someone gave him when he was 18 years old. Once he started getting late fees, he was overwhelmed and finally stopped paying anything because he never could get caught up.  After five years, they finally quit calling him when he requested they correspond in writing and send documentation of all of the charges. They never sent any info and we haven't heard from them since. My son is wiser now and is very careful with his credit after that.

- Sharon Y.

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It has helped me better understand the nature and personality of the bill collector. It has also taught me how to take a legal stance with bill collectors and how to remain firm and not waver.

- Edward

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I followed your recommendation to send a letter to a national collection agency, offering to make a final lump sum payment on an old debt which has apparently been sold a couple of times. Even though my offer was less than the 'face value' of the 6 year old debt, I expected a response but have not received any indication, after almost 90 days. Is there any advantage to pursuing this matter in order to correct my credit history, or should I allow the 7 year time window to run out in 2008?

Although the above situation has not been resolved, I did use the same technique with another national credit collection agency and negotiated a mutually agreeable settlement for which they notified the major credit bureaus that my account was paid in full.

Thank you.

- Karl

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About these testimonials: All were collected in 2008 in response to a survey we sent to consumers who had ordered the first edition version of our book. The only compensation they received was a complimentary copy of another book by one of the authors.

eBook download
$19.95

Plus, free mp3 downloads of the original audio interview with your purchase of the eBook. These are provided to you at no additional cost.

After clicking [ Checkout Here! ] you will be taken to our secure shopping chart to complete your purchase

Credit card debt is increasing faster than it has in years at the same time that the credit card default rate is going up. Experts believe that at least part of the explanation for the surge in credit card debt is that it's not as easy as it used to be for Americans to borrow against the equity in their homes.

In March 2008, the Federal Reserve Bank issued some disturbing statistics about consumer debt. According to those statistics:

• Overall consumer credit rose at an annual rate of 3.25% in January 2008, while the amount of revolving credit alone increased at an annual rate of 7%. Credit card debt is the most common kind of revolving credit.
• US consumers now owe more than $2.5 trillion to creditors, of which close to $1 trillion is revolving debt, like credit card debt.
• A little more than 4.5% of all bank credit card accounts were past due in the fourth quarter of 2007.

The results of a Bankrate, Inc. poll released in early 2008 revealed that 61% of Americans have non-mortgage debt (45% of that debt is credit card debt) and that 64% of them are concerned about their debt. Women especially worry about it -- 40% of women worry compared to 30% of men. Also, the poll reveals that higher income individuals are more apt to carry debt from month to month compared to those with lower incomes.

The Debt Collection Industry is Booming

While the value of many publicly-traded companies is falling in today's slowed economy, publicly-traded debt collection agencies are becoming great investments. At the same time, the number of debt collection companies is growing, in part because more and more consumers are falling behind on their debts and also because new technology is making it profitable for even very small home-based entrepreneurs to get into the debt collection business. As a result, according to Smart Money Magazine, the number of debt collectors has doubled since the early 1990s and the revenue generated by debt collection agencies has tripled to $15 billion. Last year agencies recovered nearly $40 billion in debt, or $133 for every man, woman and child in the U.S. A PriceWaterhouseCoopers survey provides additional evidence that debt collection agencies are thriving. The study revealed that in 2005 alone, U.S. businesses sent a whopping $141 billion in delinquent consumer debt to collections and that debt collection agencies collected $51 billion in past due debt, keeping close to 25% of that as profit.

Here is a dramatic example that illustrates just how much money there is to be made from collecting consumer debts. According to the Boston Globe, Norfolk, Virginia-based Portfolio Recovery Associates (PRA), purchased 658 debt portfolios with a face value of $16.4 billion over the last decade. The company paid just $415.4 million for the bad debt, or about 2.5 cents for each dollar of that debt. It then collected an average of 7.5 cents per dollar on the past due debt. Initially the profits realized by PRA were relatively small, but as the debt collection business grew and a growing number of creditors sold their debts to companies like PRA, the company began to thrive, turning a profit of $36.8 million in 2005. Those pennies added up!

In a search for even higher profits, some US debt collection companies have begun farming out their collection calls to companies located in India. The problem with this development for consumers is that the India-based debt collectors may not always speak clear English or understand what consumers are telling them about their debts nor may they the debt collectors be completely up-to-speed when it comes to the details of the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act or any applicable state laws that apply to debt collection.

As a result of changes in the debt collection industry, many municipalities are now finding it cost-effective to turn over consumers' past due parking and library fines to collection agencies. Also, Mom and Pop businesses now find it easier to locate debt collection agencies they can afford to work with.

Consumer Complaints About Debt Collectors Are On The Rise

According to the FTC's most recent report to Congress about consumer complaints, it received 70,951 complaints about third party debt collectors in 2007 -- more than any other industry. This number represents an increase in complaints about debt collectors over the previous year in absolute terms as well as an increase as a percentage of all of the various kind of complaints that the FTC received from consumers in 2007. It's also Complaints about third party debt collectors made up 20.8% of all of the complaints received by the FTC in 2007. When complaints about third party and in-house debt collectors are combined, the FTC received a total of 91,019 complaints from consumers in 2007, representing 26.7% of all the complaints it received.

The FTC's report also indicates the most common kinds of complaints it received about debt collectors in 2007. The #1 consumer complaint was about debt collectors who misrepresented the amount, character or legal status of a debt. For example, they demanded that consumers pay more than they owed on a debt, that they pay a debt they didn't owe, that they pay a debt for which the statute of limitations had expired, or that had been discharged through bankruptcy.

Other complaints against debt collectors commonly reported by consumers in 2007 included that they:

• Harassed consumers by calling them repeatedly or during times of the day prohibited by the FDCPA, using obscene, profane or otherwise abusive language, threatening consumers with violence, and so on.
• Threatened consumers with dire consequences if they did not pay a debt. For example, debt collectors threatened to sue consumers, garnish their wages, seize their property, cause them to lose their jobs, put them in jail, ruin their credit rating, and so on.
• Illegally called consumers at their work place.
• Told other people about consumers' alleged debt.
• Failed to send consumers the FDCPA-required written notice about their debt after contacting them for the first time.
• Do not verify debts that consumers asked to have verified.
• Continued to contact consumers after the consumers told the debt collectors that they didn't want to be contacted again about debts that the debt collectors were trying to collect.

Consumer Advocates are Calling For Debt Collection Reform

Consumer advocates are urging that the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act be amended in order to provide consumers with more protections when they are contacted by debt collectors. Among other things for example, they are asking that the law require debt collectors to provide consumers with the following information before they can begin trying to collect a debt:

• Proof that a consumer actually owes the money that a debt collector wants the consumer to pay.
• The amount of the original debt.
• A breakdown of all interest and fees associated with the debt.
• The name of the original creditor.
• When the original creditor sold the debt to the debt collector, assuming the debt collector purchased the debt.

Consumers are also demanding that debt collectors be:

• Required to actually conduct an investigation when a consumer disputes a debt they are trying to collect.
• Prohibited from reporting a collection account to the credit reporting agencies when a consumer disputes a debt that the debt collectors are trying to collect until the 30-day dispute period is up.
• Prohibited from reporting debts to credit reporting agencies if a debt collector can't verify the debt.