Beat Credit Card Debt By Losing The Guilt Associated With It

Every day more consumers fall behind on their credit card debt payments and leave themselves open to being threatened by credit card debt collectors. Some people simply cannot afford to pay their growing minimum-monthly credit-card debt payment(s), as a result they begin to feel hopeless and guilty.

Some who go through this, however, realize that they do not need to feel guilty and submit to debt collectors.

The first step to overcoming that guilt, according to the Credit Card Debt Survival Guide, is disputing and denying the debt any credit card debt collector, other then the original creditor, calls about. Not admitting to an unsecured credit card debt and denying it is a legal strategy which can be compared to invoking the Fifth Amendment. It is not an indication of character. All this means is that the other side will have to prove that they have a case against you.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act requires the credit card debt collector to send the consumer a statement saying;

1. The debt collector can assume that the debt is valid if the consumer does not dispute the debt’s validity.

2) Says that the consumer must dispute the debt, in writing, within thirty days of dispute.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act also allows the consumer to notify the credit card debt collector in writing that the consumer refuses to pay the debt and that the consumer wishes the debt collector to cease further communication with the consumer with respect to the debt.

By taking the action of disputing and denying a credit card debt and then requesting that the collector stop all communications, you have made the debt collection effort harder. The collector must return to the credit card company to obtain documents which they then have to forward to alleged debtor. They have to validate the debt with copies of original documents according to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

In the case of an unsigned and unsecured credit card debt, the credit card debt collector first has to get the consumer to admit their guilt and that they owe this debt. How this first debt collection communication from the debt collector is handled is important. The debt collector is likely to move on to a consumer who requires less work, if they are faced with a denial, a dispute of the debt and instructions to cease communications.

Matt Highlander writes about the many strategies for eliminating credit card debt; some for those who can pay, some for those who cannot pay. Read all about them in his 230-page Credit Card Debt Survival Guide