Despite the unrelenting COVID-19 pandemic and the protections put in place to protect borrowers from debt collection right now, the business of trying to collect on old debt goes on. Debt collectors are continuing to contact borrowers/debtors by phone at home and at work, by email, and “snail mail”. Debt collection is a big business, with an estimated one in four Americans having at least one unpaid debt currently in collection.
If you are being contacted by a debt collector, you need to know what they are legally allowed to do and what rights you have.
Before going into a detailed explanation of what debt collectors are and what they’re allowed to do, I want to emphasize that in Ohio and most other states, they are definitely not allowed to threaten you by saying or suggesting that a warrant has been issued for you through your local court, and that unless you make arrangements with them immediately to make payments, a sheriff will soon arrive at your door to arrest you. [Read more…]
You are surely aware that the three major credit reporting agencies (CRAs), also known as the credit bureaus, have a lot of power over whether you can get financing for vehicles, homes, and other credit transactions. But you may not know how the CRAs get the information for your credit report, or what your credit score really means. Since consumer credit history, scores, and reports are extremely important in your life, you need to make sure that you understand them and what you can do about them if they are not reporting accurately.