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.