Florida Broadens the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA)

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) gives all debtors some rights when it comes to collecting debt.  Often times, collectors only have one motive, and that is to collect the money.  The collectors or creditors don’t tend to take into consideration the damage they are causing in the process of them gaining their claim. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is provided to protect the debtors from unlawful collecting tactics that have been used in the past.

Some of the things that the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act prohibits are:

·         Contacting consumers outside of  8:00 AM and 9:00 PM

·         Misrepresentation

·         Harassing the consumer with phone calls

·         Publishing the consumer’s name on a ‘bad debt’ list

·         Communicating with a consumer at their work after being asked not to

The list of protection that the FDCPA offers extends far past that, however Florida has taken those laws and broadened them.  Florida’s laws protect the consumer more.  Their laws also apply to creditors as opposed to the FDCPA whose laws only apply to collectors. 

Florida also gives legal rights to the consumer.  If a collector or creditor has been abusive, or has broken one of Florida’s guidelines, the consumer may sue in a court of law.  The compensation that would be received would be for punitive damages. 

Some of the statutes that Florida upholds include:

·         Collectors are not allowed to communicate with the debtor during inconvenient times

·         Collectors are prohibited from mailing collection requests in a clear envelope

·         Collectors are not allowed to harass the debtor’s family

When it comes to debt collectors, Florida’s laws seem to favor the consumer.  Florida takes an already strict set of guidelines and expands them further in hopes to make a fairer environment for the debtor.