By the Collections Agitator
Did She Lose the Chance to Respond and Take Action?
While Kim’s debt dispute was outside of the 30-day requirement period-she had a couple of things going in her favor. First, the debt collector had not filed the necessary documents to begin a lawsuit against her. Second, several debt collector missteps tilted the scale. For example, if a debt collectors’ initial contact is via telephone, they must send the consumer a “validation” letter within five days of that first contact. A validation notice is a written notification of an alleged debt obligation, the history of that debt, including the intent to collect the debt and cease all communication until the debt is validated. There were two-months of telephone contact without receipt of a validation letter.
Remember, Kim said the calls began two months ago when she changed her cellphone number. Since she had not given the original creditor or the debt collector her cellphone number, she did not consent to contact via cellphone. The debt collector’s calls ran afoul of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The TCPA unequivocally states that a person must give affirmative consent for a business to contact them via their cell phone. Suppose you provided a mobile number as a means of contact; you should be aware that it is permissible for a business/creditor to share the number with a third-party debt collector. Take a second and think about the forms you have completed in recent years. The forms ask for contact information, including a cellphone number. The next question is often, do you consent to be contacted/texted via that cellphone number. The TCPA is a separate but complementary Act to The FDCPA. The combined consumer protections be offer greater strength.
One of the great things about a cellphone is the built-in caller id. Because even if the callers’ name is “unknown,” the calling number, date, and time are typically displayed.
Hey, you still with me, right? Okay. So, Kim is one of those who never deletes calls or text messages and scrolls forever to find an item. When she searches for a call or text, it’s like observing a contestant on the Price is Right game show. How many spins will it take to reach the right one? But seriously, this squirreling habit was a plus because she had a well-preserved phone log of debt collector calls. The history showed multiple calls within an hour or day and calls received outside the 8:00 am to 9:00 pm timeframe permitted by the FDCPA.
Armed with her consumer rights and good documentation, Kim’s subsequent interactions with the Debt Collector were very different. Stay tuned, Tribe.