Debt Law Myths
Don’t fall in the trap of believing everything you hear in regards to debt law. Actually a lot of misinformation is shared and spread every day. Knowing the truth arms you with a better plan for working through your debt issues.
Many people believe that certain situations necessitate that your creditors must deal with you a bit more leniently than others. For instance, some believe that those creditors with a family, serious illness or the elderly are entitled in special treatment. While from a legal standpoint, this is totally false. In practice, many creditors do in fact offer assistance to some of these demographic groups. It’s the expectation part of it that is a myth in dire need of debunking.
Creditors commonly have to go to great lengths to communicate with their debtors. In doing so, the actions on the part of the collection agency might be interpreted as harassment. While in theory, harassment is strictly prohibited by law, it can be a grey area. What constitutes a threat to one party may not seem that way to another. Typically, letter and multiple phone calls are not considered to be threatening whereas any physical threat that could harm the debtor would be crossing the line.
A truth of debt law is that creditors must obtain repayment within a designated window of time. Typically, the creditor has approximately six years to contact you regarding the debt. If during that time period, they do contact you, then the process has been initiated. If you think continuing to dodge their collection efforts until the six year anniversary will erase the debt, think again. Once contact is initiated, the window has closed and you are responsible for debt repayment.
Many debtors also believe that if their debts are small then their creditors will not expect repayment. After all, only just owing a few hundred pounds is significant in comparison to the amount of money it would take to enact legal proceedings to collect upon the debt. While in some situations this may be true. Keep in mind that your creditors can sue you for bankruptcy if you owe them at least £750. Some of this might be added on expenses from debt collection.