Problem:

I had a credit card with American Express. The credit card has been assigned to P.Scott Lowery office after I failed to make payments for continuous 4 months. I receive phone calls from their office everyday. I don’t pick up the phone. I’m not in a financial position to pay off the debt. So, I try to ignore their calls.

My father has started getting calls from P.Scott Lowery office. My father’s name is not there in the card account. He is not the co-signer or the authorized user on the credit card agreement. Can this company give all the details of the account to my father? Is it allowed?

Solution:

My guess is that Scott Lowery Law Office is hoping that you’ll pay off the debt when your father gets to know about your situation. However, this is not at all legal. The company does not have any right to divulge your financial details to your father. The company may contact your attorney regarding this issue. However, Scott Lowery Law Office does not have the right to speak about your debt to your father. The company has clearly violated the federal laws.

Collection agencies/debt collectors can call your father when they are unable to reach you. There is no problem until they follow the Section 804 [15 U.S.C.sec.1692b]. Under this section, it is clearly specified that the debt collector can’t reveal the debt information by any means. The collector has to identify himself while calling a person. In addition to that, the collector has to say he is just verifying the contact details of the consumer.

I can think about at least one reason why the collection agency has called your father. You’re not receiving their calls. In fact, you’re sick and tired of their collection calls. However, ignoring the calls is not the solution to your problem. Receive the call and inform the collection agency to stop calling you.

Your father’s life has become hell due to the repeated collection calls. Your father or you can get in touch with an attorney and bring up the issue in front of a court judge. The debt collector may have to pay as much as $1000 even if you didn’t get directly affected because of these calls.

Keep it mind that you can’t evade the debt collector forever. Resolve the debt problems after you stop the phone calls from the collection agency. Otherwise, you may get into trouble in future. The company can attempt to snatch away a portion of your paycheck or impose a line on your asset. This will bring upon more negative information on your credit report.

Find out if the debt is legitimate. The next thing you need to check out is the statute of limitations (SOL) period in your state. The third thing that you need to keep it in mind is your affordability. If you really don’t have financial resources to pay off the debt, then consider bankruptcy.

Go through a credit counseling session before filing bankruptcy. You may be able to pay off the debt through the effective guidance of the credit counselor.