Do you remember the feeling you get when a letter from a bill collector shows up in the mail? The queasy feeling you get in your guts when you’re told that you owe money that you are unable to repay? And later on, when the phone calls and letters hound you for money that you don’t have?

It’s time to assert yourself. It’s finally time to discover what your rights are, and to exercise them.

A Federal law known as the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (also known as the FDCPA) tells you exactly what a debt collector can and can’t do to collect a debt from you. The FDCPA puts hard limits on exactly how a debt collector can contact you.

For example, a debt collector cannot call you at work except to find out the telephone number to call you at home. They cannot inform other people, including your employer, about the debt you owe.

In addition, debt collection agents can’t continue to call or contact you about your debt if you tell them that they can no longer do so. And that is what we’re going to learn about how to do.

The magic letter to bill collectors is made up of two parts:

The first is your identifying information. This consists of your name, your address, any debt account numbers for the debt that they’re trying to collect, and any other info they may need to positively identify you as the debt account holder.

The second thing is to tell them that you want them to cease communicating with you in any way.

This is all that the FDCPA requires you to do to stop the bill collector from contacting or harassing you in the future. The only additional correspondence that the bill collector can send to you is a letter notifying you that they will stop contacting you, and whether or not they intend to pursue legal action in order to collect on the debt.

When you send your bill collector letter, you’d be wise to mail it via certified mail. Make sure to request a delivery receipt, so that when the debt collector get the letter, you’ll receive notification that they’ve gotten it. Make sure that you save the receipt in case you have to prove that they actually got the letter.

According to the rules of the FDCPA, if the debt collector continues to contact you in the future, they’re in violation of the law. You then have the right to report them to the FTC, which is the agency that actually enforces the FDCPA. After you’ve notified the FTC about the legal violation by the debt collector, the FTC can take legal action against the debt collector on your behalf.

Keep in mind that even after you let the debt collector know about your desire not to be contacted, they still can pursue legal action against you to collect on the debt. This handy letter can only protect you from being harassed by debt collectors. It can’t keep you from being sued by the debt collectors if they still want to collect on the debt.

Have you ever heard of someone who has gone bankrupt? If you have, then you must be aware of what the word means. Being bankrupt, in layman’s terms, means going broke. You are already bankrupt when all your properties and assets are tied up and you have no more sources of funds to pay for your debts and other financial obligations. Filing for bankruptcy is a means for those individuals experiencing such situations to recover somehow.

Then again, despite the fact that it may help with your financial situation, filing for bankruptcy should always be the last resort. Once a bankruptcy record is included in your credit history, you will no longer find it possible to get a decent deal from any financial provider, if you get approved a deal in the first place. Finding a job may also be tough. When you try to get a loan, refinance a car or home, or rent an apartment, chances are you will get declined.

In addition, the bankruptcy record can last for up to ten years on your credit history. Just of think of spending ten years of trying to recover from your financial situation again and again, only to be rejected in the end. Such a life isn’t too appealing, is it? Thus, you must do all you can to avoid having to file for bankruptcy. Budget management is your best bet.

It is a must for every one to work out a budget and follow it. Impulse buying can prove to be really dangerous especially for expensive items. However, even smaller purchases are not exceptions to this since usually, they add up fast and before you know it, you have accumulated a lot of purchases that will drag you even deeper into debt. It is therefore advisable to leave behind your checkbook and credit card whenever you go to the mall or supermarket to shop. Before you leave the house, create a checklist of things to buy and bring just the amount of money needed for them. Of course, bring pocket money as well. Furthermore, compare items from different retailers before you buy a particular one.

You will have a clue on what a reasonable price is by visiting multiple stores. You need not be quick when you buy items. In fact, it is better that you evaluate all of the items you want to buy before you actually purchase them. This helps in making you realize whether you really need to buy the item or it can wait till the next pay. If you have decided however, that you must buy an item, then you can go ahead and buy them.

If you find that your debt is really overwhelming, you can still do something to somehow improve your situation. Calculate how much your debt to income ratio is. If you credit card debt is quite substantial, you can try to contact the credit card company and agree on a payment plan.

You can also seek the help of a financial advisor if you are finding it really hard to settle your debts. A financial advisor can help by finding out for you all the possible ways to get financial help, and negotiate with your credit card company and other financial providers in order to work out agreements on how to pay. Make sure that the financial advisor you will choose is a competent and reliable one, who sincerely wants to help you.

Dawn Enstruthe writes for Ginko Financial which has information on divorce and refinancing and small debt financing for business.

At some point in any manager or business owner’s career the issue of debt collection comes up, and at that point you may become curious about debt collection agencies. Following is a discussion of debt collection agencies that explains what exactly they do and what their benefits are to you.

Debt collection agencies most frequently are companies whose business is collecting debt owed to others. Some of these companies are mainly call centers that get hired by other companies to call on their delinquent accounts in exchange for a monthly fee or, more frequently, for a percentage of any of the money that’s recovered.

Other businesses that fall under the umbrella of debt collection agencies include law firms that do collections, and companies that “buy” debt, which means they pay the creditor an agreed-upon percentage of the outstanding debt in return for the right to keep whatever they’re able to collect on it. All of these types of debt collectors fall under federal debt collection regulations.

There are many benefits to using debt collection agencies rather than trying to collect on your own debts. The first is that they’re skilled in the most current collections practices, which go beyond reminder notices and persistent phone calls. They’re also aware of the federal and state laws they’re required to operate under, which means no inadvertent lawbreaking that can ruin your collections attempts.

In addition, successful collection activity includes such arduous tasks as negotiating settlements, private investigation and pursing judgments when debtors just refuse to pay. Most companies don’t know how to perform all of these tasks, which is the main reason they hire debt collection agencies.

When you pursue your collections yourself, you may end up outlaying a lot of cash for private investigators and attorneys. Also, calls from a collection agency are known to be stressful to debtors, motivating them to pay more quickly than calls from the original debtor, which many of them have a surprising ability to ignore.

Because of the way debt collection agencies structure their fees, usually there is very little cost to you up front, and since they have a better track record for recovering money than individual businesses do, in the end you end up with more money than you would if you were doing it on your own. Debt collection agencies are also highly cognizant of the fact that debt must be recovered within a certain time frame because the more time passes, the less likely it is that you will recover.

On the other hand, if your cash flow is poor and it’s better for you to get money immediately rather than collect more money over time, a good option is to give your delinquent accounts to an agency that pays you for them up front in return for the remainder of the collections. If not, regular debt collection agencies give you more money in the long run. Both types of debt collection agencies will get you more money than you can on your own, save you time and reduce stress. Regardless of which type of debt collection agencies you decide to hire, they will save you time, money and stress in the end.