Creditor harassment of your work phone number

Even if you love your job, it is undoubtedly stressful at times. Deadlines, office politics and other factors almost assuredly color your employment experience from time to time. These realities are challenging enough without having to battle creditor harassment while you are at work. Though creditors may contact your employer in a limited capacity, most of the time they are not allowed to bother you at work. If you are experiencing illegal forms of creditor harassment, the law protects your right to have this behavior stopped.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act protects consumers in debt from "abusive, unfair and deceptive debt collection practices." The Act does not forbid creditors from contacting you and insisting that you repay them, but it does constrain the ways in which creditors may go about doing so.

For example, creditors may call your work number unless you have informed them that you refuse this form of contact. However, if you tell a creditor in writing or verbally not to contact you at work, that creditor must respect that boundary. In addition, creditors may contact your employer, friends or family in order to locate you. However, they may only contact each individual one time and may only ask your loved ones, co-workers and acquaintances about a limited amount of information. Creditors may also not divulge that you owe them money.

In addition, creditors are only allowed to contact you at certain times of the day and may not be blatantly disrespectful. For example, they may not use obscene language with you, threaten you with violence or call you repeatedly simply to wear you down.

If you have been the subject of abusive creditor harassment practices, please understand that you have the right to insist that these practices cease. If you have questions about how to enforce your rights, please contact an experienced attorney.

Source: ABC15.com, "Is it legal for a debt collector to call you at work?" Rachael Mason, Jan. 4, 2013