Dealing with debt is already a big enough stressor on its own. When you compound that with harassment from creditors, it can start to feel overwhelmingly hard to deal with.
Fortunately, laws protect you from certain creditor actions. In fact, debt collectors may actually overstep these lines when trying to collect from you, opening up the floor to you taking legal action against them.
Tactics of harassment
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau looks into harassment that debt collectors may attempt to do. Many harassment tactics attempt to reach the same end goal: to intimidate a person into making payments faster, no matter what they have to do to make those payments.
When harassing a target, debt collectors may use a number of tactics. Some involve threatening you with bodily harm either directly or indirectly. Others may involve threatening your sense of safety or well-being, or even your family, such as if a debt collector threatens to get you evicted.
Instilling fear
In other cases, debt collectors may simply want to instill a sense of fear by showing they always have an eye on you. For example, they may have an agent stake out your house, staying outside of your property in a vehicle and watching you all throughout the day or night.
They may also flood the phones or try to call you during inappropriate times, such as in the dead of night or the early hours of the morning. They might leave vague or threatening voice messages and refuse to identify themselves.
If you face any of these instances, you could have legal standing to take action against these debt collectors.
