Provisions of the FDCPA should be revised

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) has stringent provisions to punish the unfair practices of debt collectors. The FDCPA is a federal law that is enforced for the protection of consumer rights against unlawful debt collection practices. According to this Act, the creditor or the debt collection agency that bought your debt from the original creditor has the right to collect the debt legally from you. However, debt collectors must use fair debt collection procedures while attempting to collect from you.

Despite strict guidelines in the FDCPA to protect debtors against the unethical practices, the consumer lawsuits against debt collection process are increasing everyday in our country.

The reasons for this are many. Some of them are due to the FDCPA statute becoming outdated in today's society compared to the society of 1977 when this Act was enacted. The FDCPA was established much before the arrival of cell phones, e-mail and auto dialers. With these technological advancements one is unsure if the FDCPA can be validated with these in the backdrop. The FDCPA prohibits debt collectors from repeatedly contacting debtors for payments. Now e-mailing and auto dialing have added a new dimension to debt collection process.

If we examine carefully, there is another side to debt collection harassment. Creditors sell debts to debt collectors without giving the exact nature of the debt. This often leads to majority of debt collectors being ignorant about the legitimacy of the debt. The whole situation gets worsened by debt collectors attempting to collect debt which is not legally collectible.

While this is a cause of embarrassment for genuine debt collectors, this is like a passport to con collectors to indulge in harassing collection activities. Hence, an increase in debt collection harassment cases.

It has become imperative now to upgrade the FDCPA provisions to accommodate the present progress. The FDCPA must also look at enforcing stricter guidelines and penalties for law violations to ensure fair collection process.

On the other hand a consumer may lose a lawsuit and court may determine that the consumer filed the case in bad faith and for harassment, the court may then award attorney's fees to the debt collector.

Consumers should be aware of their rights under the state and federal law. At the same time they should understand if their case can take the legal standing. Their protection from unfair debt collection processes being the most important, consumers should not file frivolous lawsuits or sue in the hope of not paying for a legitimate debt and end in legal hot waters.

The shift in times definitely has necessitated a change in guidelines of the FDCPA. Going by the times, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) which enforces the FDCPA should look at the prospect of adding new guidelines to the already existing ones in order to accommodate the latest in technology.