Unfair Debt Collection

The Texas Debt Collection Act (TDCA) provides remedies for anyone injured by unfair practices relating to the collection of consumer debts.  Most of the practices prohibited by the TDCA apply only to debt collectors, but some apply to credit bureaus or persons who purport to be credit bureaus.

The Texas Debt Collection Act prohibits debt collectors from using wrongful practices in the collection of consumer debts.

Some unfair methods include but are not limited to the following:

Threats or coercion:

• Using or threatening to use violence or other criminal means to harm a person or  their property.
• Falsely accusing or threatening to accuse a person of fraud or another crime.
• Threatening to prosecute
• Representing or threatening to represent to another person that a consumer is willfully refusing to pay a nondisputed consumer debt if the debt is disputed and the consumer has notified the debt collector of the dispute in writing
• Threatening the debtor with arrest for nonpayment of a consumer debt
• Threatening to file criminal charges against a debtor when the debtor has not violated any criminal law
• Threatening a person with seizure, repossession, or sale of the person’s property without proper court proceedings
• Threatening to take an action prohibited by law

Harassment or Abuse:

• Using language intended to unreasonably abuse the hearer or reader, including profanity or obscenities
• Placing telephone calls with the intent to annoy, harass, or threaten a person at the called number, without disclosing the caller’s name
• Causing a telephone to ring repeatedly or continuously, or making repeated or continuous telephone calls, with the intent to harass a person at the called number

Unfair or Unconscionable Means:

• Seeking or obtaining a written acknowledgment that specifies that a consumer debt was incurred for necessities if it was not
• Collecting or attempting to collect interest, a fee, a charge, or an expense incidental to the obligation unless expressly authorized by the agreement creating the obligation or is legally chargeable to the consumer

Misleading Representations:

• Using a name other than the business name of the debt collector
• Falsely representing that the debt collector has information
• Not clearly disclosing the name of the person to whom the debt has been assigned or to whom it is owed
• Not communicating that they are attempting to collect a debt
• Misrepresenting the character, extent, or amount of a consumer debt