Creditor And Their Bonds

[Rosicler Kleckner]

Manydebt-settlement companies make promises that they simply cannot keep and leave consumers in worse financial state then when they began. These companies tell consumers to stop paying debts. They advise placing money into savings account so that enough funds will accumulate to allow a settlement offer to be made to any creditors.

In addition, all debt collectors operating in New York, whether acting on behalf of a third party or on behalf of themselves, are required to follow New York State law (Article 29-H of the General Business Law) governing debt-collection practices.

Both federal and state laws regulate and restrict various debt-collection practices.

A debt-collection agency may contact you in person, by telephone, or in writing and must disclose the purpose of the contact. These agencies cannot contact you at inconvenient places or times (for example, before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m.), unless you agree. A debt-collection agency is prohibited from contacting you at your place of employment if the agency knows that your employer disapproves.

To dispute a debt, you must write a letter to the debt-collection agency within 30 days of their initial contact with you. If you dispute a debt, the agency is prohibited by law from contacting you again until it sends you verification of your debt.

Write a letter to the debt-collection agency to ask that they stop contacting you. Once the agency receives your letter, it may not contact you any further except to inform you that there will be no further contact or that it or the creditor intends to takes some specific action. However, submitting a letter asking a debt-collection agency to stop contacting you does not prevent the agency from instituting legal action against you to collect the debt.

There is nothing to be ashamed about if you are experiencing difficulties meeting all your financial obligations. It is important, however, that you reach out for assistance if you believe you cannot handle your bills.

If you are experiencing credit-related financial problems or debt-collection phone calls, consider contacting a not-for-profit credit counseling agency that is licensed by the New York State Banking Department for assistance. Generally, these organizations offer assistance for free or at minimal expense in paying back your debts.

Creditors may contact you directly about a debt you owe them. For example, your credit card company may call to remind you that you have not been making the minimum payments necessary to keep your account from defaulting. Generally, federal consumer-protection laws regarding fair debt collection do not apply in these situations, but the creditors are still required to comply with New York law governing debt collection.

If a creditor decides to bring a lawsuit against you to try to collect a debt, it will typically hire a law firm to bring the lawsuit. Legal process servers are hired by law firms to serve legal papers notifying individuals that they are being sued.

If you are served with legal papers, it is important that you respond, even if you do not believe that you owe any money. If you fail to respond, the court may enter a default judgment against you, and the creditor may be able to seize money from your bank account or garnish your wages.

In recent years, the Office of the New York State Attorney General has uncovered fraudulent practices by certain process-service companies who claim that they have provided documents to individuals although they never did.

In order to remove (vacate) a default judgment that has been entered against you for this or any other reason, New York law requires that you make an application to the court that entered the judgment. To assist you with this application, you should consult an attorney.

We Value Your Privacy

We use cookies to enhance your browsing experience, serve personalized content, and analyze our traffic. By using this website you consent to our use of cookies.

At the start of the pandemic, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund urged the G20 to set up the DSSI. Established in May 2020, the DSSI helped countries concentrate their resources on fighting the pandemic and safeguarding the lives and livelihoods of millions of the most vulnerable people. Forty-eight out of 73 eligible countries participated in the initiative before it expired at the end of December 2021. From May 2020 to December 2021, the initiative suspended $12.9 billion in debt-service payments owed by participating countries to their creditors, according to the latest estimates.

1Estimated debt-service payments owed to all official bilateral creditors as per the World Bank Debtor Reporting System (DRS) and International Debt Statistics definitions and classifications. Estimates are derived from annual IDS projections based on end-2020 external public and publicly guaranteed debt outstanding and disbursed. Data for South Sudan, Micronesia, Tuvalu, Kiribati, and Marshall Islands are not available. GDP data based on WDI. The full IDS database is available here.

This site uses cookies to optimize functionality and give you the best possible experience. If you continue to navigate this website beyond this page, cookies will be placed on your browser. To learn more about cookies, click here.

The site is secure.

The ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

(a) Abusive practices

There is abundant evidence of the use of abusive, deceptive, and unfair debt collection practices by many debt collectors. Abusive debt collection practices contribute to the number of personal bankruptcies, to marital instability, to the loss of jobs, and to invasions of individual privacy.

(d) Interstate commerce

Abusive debt collection practices are carried on to a substantial extent in interstate commerce and through means and instrumentalities of such commerce. Even where abusive debt collection practices are purely intrastate in character, they nevertheless directly affect interstate commerce.

(e) Purposes

It is the purpose of this subchapter to eliminate abusive debt collection practices by debt collectors, to insure that those debt collectors who refrain from using abusive debt collection practices are not competitively disadvantaged, and to promote consistent State action to protect consumers against debt collection abuses.

(4) The term "creditor" means any person who offers or extends credit creating a debt or to whom a debt is owed, but such term does not include any person to the extent that he receives an assignment or transfer of a debt in default solely for the purpose of facilitating collection of such debt for another.

(5) The term "debt" means any obligation or alleged obligation of a consumer to pay money arising out of a transaction in which the money, property, insurance or services which are the subject of the transaction are primarily for personal, family, or household purposes, whether or not such obligation has been reduced to judgment.

(6) The term "debt collector" means any person who uses any instrumentality of interstate commerce or the mails in any business the principal purpose of which is the collection of any debts, or who regularly collects or attempts to collect, directly or indirectly, debts owed or due or asserted to be owed or due another. Notwithstanding the exclusion provided by clause (F) of the last sentence of this paragraph, the term includes any creditor who, in the process of collecting his own debts, uses any name other than his own which would indicate that a third person is collecting or attempting to collect such debts. For the purpose of section 1692f(6) of this title, such term also includes any person who uses any instrumentality of interstate commerce or the mails in any business the principal purpose of which is the enforcement of security interests. The term does not include --

(B) any person while acting as a debt collector for another person, both of whom are related by common ownership or affiliated by corporate control, if the person acting as a debt collector does so only for persons to whom it is so related or affiliated and if the principal business of such person is not the collection of debts;

(E) any nonprofit organization which, at the request of consumers, performs bona fide consumer credit counseling and assists consumers in the liquidation of their debts by receiving payments from such consumers and distributing such amounts to creditors; and

(F) any person collecting or attempting to collect any debt owed or due or asserted to be owed or due another to the extent such activity (i) is incidental to a bona fide fiduciary obligation or a bona fide escrow arrangement; (ii) concerns a debt which was originated by such person; (iii) concerns a debt which was not in default at the time it was obtained by such person; or (iv) concerns a debt obtained by such person as a secured party in a commercial credit transaction involving the creditor.

(3) not communicate with any such person more than once unless requested to do so by such person or unless the debt collector reasonably believes that the earlier response of such person is erroneous or incomplete and that such person now has correct or complete location information;

(5) not use any language or symbol on any envelope or in the contents of any communication effected by the mails or telegram that indicates that the debt collector is in the debt collection business or that the communication relates to the collection of a debt; and

(6) after the debt collector knows the consumer is represented by an attorney with regard to the subject debt and has knowledge of, or can readily ascertain, such attorney's name and address, not communicate with any person other than that attorney, unless the attorney fails to respond within a reasonable period of time to communication from the debt collector.

3a8082e126