Maybe you had a hospital stay and didn't have insurance to cover it. Or maybe you bought a car that turned out to be a wreck. Perhaps you didn't get the raise you were expecting when you made all those charges on your credit card, or even lost your job.
Many folks fall behind in debt payments.
On top of the anxiety of trying to make ends meet and worrying about your outstanding debt, you start to cringe when the phone rings because you are afraid it's the debt collector. Debt collectors seem like an added punishment with harassing and sometimes abusive phone calls at home and at work. There is a federal law that controls how debt collectors may treat you and how they may go about collecting the debt. It is called the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and it covers your personal, family and household debts. This column and the next issue's column provide information about what debt collectors may and may not do, and how you can control their contact with you under this law.