If you do not now the rights and protections afforded to you by law, your only rights become those GRANTED to you by a creditor.  Most likely none. 

Fair Debt Collection Practice Act – 15 USC 169 2nd

(a) 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.

(b) Existing laws and procedures for redressing these injuries are inadequate to protect consumers.

(c) Means other than misrepresentation or other abusive debt collection practices are available for the effective collection of debts.

(d) 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) It is the purpose of this title 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.

Read the full text of the Act here  Hyperlink in a new window to http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre27.pdf

Don’t be a victim to creditors who use illegal tactics in order to “mentally harass you.”  Christian Debt Consultants employs a licensed attorney to actively research all state and federal laws concerning debt collection practices.  We help our Clients prevent unlawful and unethical harassment practices by creditors.