How To Strike Back Against Debt Collectors - And WIN!

Scams, scams, and more scams. False, illegitimate, or even worse, illegal debt collection agencies. They are popping up left and right. And how do you know when to pay a debt? Or when to not pay a debt? Or what's real and what's not? In today's episode, I'm going to give you the tools that you need in your tool belt so you can strike back against debt collectors and win. So stick around.

So the big question is, how can we take our passion for helping people with their credit and turn it into a successful business without taking loans, without spending a fortune by bootstrapping it from nothing so we can help the most people and still become highly profitable? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Daniel Rosen, and welcome to Credit Repair Business Secrets.

If you haven't been approached yet by clients who have been harassed by debt collectors, you will soon. And you'll need to know what to do and what not to do to help and protect them. See, there are several federal laws and regulations, primarily the Fair Debt Collection Practices act, the fdcpa, and State Mirror laws that protect consumers from from being harassed or abused by debt collectors. And that actually happens a lot. The fdcpa, it was created to prevent unfair, deceptive or abusive practices by debt collectors, but too often, it doesn't stop them. And many debt collectors, they break the law in an attempt to collect on the debt. However, once they do break the law, it's possible not only to stop the harassment, but also to be awarded a settlement. As you're becoming an expert in credit repair, it's important to understand what these regulations are so you can advise your clients on how to respond and whether they're being treated unfairly according to the law. And a good thing to do as your credit repair business grows is to start to build a relationship with a local law firm that specializes in debt collection so you you can work together when necessary. So let me ask you a question. Do you like confrontation? Do you enjoy arguments? Probably not, right? I hate them. And chances are your clients hate them too. We all want to live in peace, and we all want to avoid major conflicts. But the problem is, that's exactly what the illegal debt collecting scammers rely on. Instead of fighting and winning, most of our clients to avoid the harassment, they start paying on a debt that either should never have been on their credit report in the first place or is past the statute of limitations and is not legally collectible, or that won't help their credit at all. And that's just A waste of money. That's why as credit heroes, we've got to arm ourselves with knowledge to support our clients so so they can know their rights and have confidence to handle these things when they happen. Here is why this is important. The FDCPA includes three major debt collector restrictions that could affect your clients. Number one Harassment or abuse. A debt collector may not do or say anything that leads to harassment, oppression or abuse. This includes making threats to individual safety, income freedom or employment. For example, a debt collector cannot use abusive or obscene language. They cannot call before 9am or no, they cannot call before 8am or after 9pm unless you agree. They cannot call you without telling you who they are. They cannot call you at work if you've ask them not to. And they cannot speak with anyone else other than your attorney about the debt. They also may not threaten to publish a debtor's name. A debtor is the person who owes the money. They cannot publish your name publicly as someone who doesn't pay their bills. False or Misleading representations A debt collector may not represent themselves in a deceptive or misleading way. They can't threaten to have you arrested, they can't misinterpret how much you owe them, and they can't pretend to be an attorney if they're not. And these guys do this stuff. They can be very, very sneaky. They have to be very, very clear that they are debt collectors and they are contacting the individual for the purpose of collecting debt. And debt collectors are also required to communicate that a disputed debt is being disputed. So that means a debt collector that sends miscommunications or makes phone calls claiming to be from a government agency, claiming to be an attorney or law enforcement, or even pretending to work at a credit bureau in order to get information or payment. They would be in direct violation of the fdcpa and that means you have the power to take legal action against them. And number three Unfair practices. A debt collector cannot use any unfair or outrageous means to collect a debt. This includes adding or causing a debtor to incur fees that were not part of the original original debt agreement. For example, a debt collector may not collect extra fees or interest from the debtor. Now, a really handy thing to know is that once your client receives an initial letter of communication from a debt collector, Your client has 30 days to respond to that letter to dispute the validity of the debt or to request verification of the debt. Now, either one of those letters, they're going to trigger a stop in all communications from the debt collector while the debt is being investigated. Another really important tip is to keep a really good paper trail for all the communications that your clients have had with any debt collectors. They can take notes during calls and keep a really good record of what was said because those notes could become critical evidence if the collection agent breaks any laws. Okay, so what does happen if the debt collector does break the law? Well, here are seven ways that your client can strike back against them. You can report a debt collector to a government agency, for example, the FTC@ftccomplaintassistant.gov or to the CFPB@consumerfinance.gov complaint. If the debt collector is harassing your client, you can force them to stop communicating by sending a cease and desist letter. That's a very simple letter. If you use credit repair cloud, we have that in the library. It's right there. You can report the violations to the state attorney general because the debt collector is probably violating state laws, too. And you can sue the debt collector in small claims court, and you can sue the debt collector in state court. Also, you can use this violation as leverage in a debt settlement negotiation. All right, debt collectors, they know how costly an FDCPA lawsuit can be for them, so they may be more likely to settle the debt. And finally, and this is a good one, you can also consult with a law firm that specializes in debt collection. And if they see that the debt collector has broken the law, which happens all the time, they can get a very nice settlement for your client. Now, I recently had one of our credit repair cloud users, he's a credit repair expert. His name is Ray Bueno. I had him on this podcast with me. You may have heard his interview. His YouTube channel is called Keeping it Real with Credit. And he has nearly a quarter of a million subscribers on his YouTube. And his video called Never pay Collections, it has nearly 6 million views. It's an awesome video. I recommend that you go see it. In that video and in our interview as well, he talks about his story of when he came back to America after fighting overseas with our military. See, he was in Iraq. He was in the Marines. And then he came back home to discover that he and a whole bunch of other soldiers, they had a ton of bills go to collections because they weren't around to catch the missing payments. So he did what most of us who don't know any better do. When he got the harassing calls about his debt, he started working to pay it off, only to find that the money he was paying, it didn't reflect on his credit report and it wasn't even held by the same company he had missed the payments with. Instead, it was a total scam. So he had to hire a lawyer and fight the system just like I'm telling you you may have to do. And guess what? Not only did he win, but now he's changing thousands and thousands of lives with his story and with the knowledge he has learned by fixing his own credit. If you haven't listened to that podcast, you should go listen to it right after this one, okay? It's really cool. And Ray gives a to ton of great information on credit repair and debt collections. So if you really want to dive in and fully understand the ins and outs of credit repair and how to launch a credit repair business fast, I want to invite you to join our upcoming Credit Hero Challenge. It's a live experience where our coaches and our team of experts and I, we walk you through day by day, step by step, as you use our proven systems to start, run and grow your profitable recurring revenue credit repair business. And if you're finding value in the things that I'm sharing on this podcast, be sure to click below to subscribe because I don't want you to miss any episodes. And if you're feeling kind, rate me and give me a review because this is a new podcast and I can use all the help I can get and I will see you on the next episode. So until then, keep Changing lives.

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