Arizona: What debt collection practices can my creditors legally use?

In Arizona, as in other states, your creditors are limited in the tactics that they may use in their attempts to recover debt payments from you. Under federal laws like the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, creditors are not permitted to engage in fraudulent or harassing behavior in oder to attempt to collect debts from you. They can, however, take several actions within the bounds of the law.

In Arizona, for example, creditors may:

• Report adverse information to your credit report
• Contact you in an attempt to collect the debt, if you have not formally requested contact to stop or to be directed to another party and as long as the contact is not harassing
• Bring a lawsuit against you to get a judgment against you
• Once they have a judgment against you for the debt, they may also be able to use other tactics such as garnishing your wages or placing a lien on property that you own in order to collect the debts you owe.

Creditors may not:

• Threaten to take legal action if they do not intend to do so
• Send you papers that look like legal papers but that really are not
• Call you outside of normal hours (such as very early in the morning or very late at night)
• Contact your friends, family, relatives and neighbors and tell them about your debt (they may be able to attempt to contact them to track you down if they do not have a current address)
• Continue collecting a debt if you have asked them for proof you owe the debt and if they have not provided such proof.

If you are being treated unfairly by a creditor, you should contact a lawyer for help. An attorney may also be able to explain options for Arizona debt settlement to you so you can take steps to deal with your debt more effectively.