...

Keeping Up With The Bills During Covid

Keeping up with the bills and other expenses can be difficult in the best of times. Keeping up with the Bill’s and other expenses during difficult times, such as the current Covid pandemic, can be next to impossible. Millions of hard working Americans have lost their jobs. Millions of people have suffered from a significant reduction in pay. Being behind on your debt certainly isn’t a pleasant situation, however it is completely understandable. We get it. When you can’t afford to pay your monthly Bill’s on time or pay them in any manner your accounts are typically sent to a collection agency or more then one collection agency.

The thing is that the vast majority of collection agencies are completely unsympathetic to your difficult financial situation. That’s why the government needs to step in and put a temporary stop or a temporary freeze on past due debt accounts. In essence, the government should help people by stopping collections activity for 90 days or another set period of time until the Covid pandemic is over. The good news is that the incoming/new administration is far more sympathetic to the needs of consumers compared to the outgoing/last administration.

That means you very well may end up getting a break from those annoying debt collector calls at least for the short term. That being stated, there is something you can do right now that will get debt collectors to stop contacting you. In essence, it all comes down to informing them in writing that you no longer wish to be contacted by their agency. If you need help writing a cease and desist letter we are more then happy to help you with that. Most people who have past due debt are unaware of the fact that you simply do not need to communicate with debt collectors on the phone.

You can simply hang up. You do need to keep in mind that hanging up on the debt collectors will only make them call you more. That is where the cease and desist letter comes into play. If you send a cease and desist letter by certified mail and the debt collector continues to call you they are in violation of your consumer rights. The bottom line is they are taking part in debt collector harassment at that point and you may have a strong lawsuit against them. If you do sue the debt collector in a court of law for debt collector harassment and win your case, not only will a judge force them to stop calling you, he or she may award you with compensation or damages.

Please consult with a consumer rights attorney for more information about suing a debt collector. It is also important for you to know that once you stop the debt collector from calling you, the debt that you owe them is still valid. It does not go away based on the fact that you made and or enforced a request to not be contacted by the debt collector. So what happens next? Typically speaking, the debt collector will file a lawsuit against you in order to attempt to collect the debt that you owe. You will receive a letter directly from the court with the day and time of your court case.

It is incredibly important for you to show up at court. If you fail to appear, the judge has the right to issue a warrant for your arrest. In the minimum, the judge will rule against you, which means you may need to start paying the debt collector on the past due amount that you owe. On the other hand, when you appear in court it provides you with the chance to defend yourself. You can explain to the judge the reasons why you fell behind on your bills. You can also explain to the judge that as much as you want to pay back your creditors and pay off your debt, you simply cannot afford to at this time.

A few things can happen at this point. First and foremost, if you are struggling to the point that it’s hard to pay for basic expenses chances are the judge will not force you to pay the past due debt at this time. He or she will probably set another court date in order to review your financial situation in the near future. If your financial situation has not changed at that time, the process will continue. Although you will need to appear in court, it is certainly better then paying the debt if you can’t afford to. It’s always a good idea to consult with consumer rights attorney about your court case. Please contact your Legal Rights Advocates today for more information.

We want to help...

Are debt collectors harassing you? Call us and receive guidance on your rights and potential violations for FREE!

We can help: