What are my Rights & Responsibilities

To Understand your rights please refer to the Article "Creditors and Collection Agents".

This article lists the do's and dont's that creditors and collectors must follow.

The following are a debtors responsibilities when dealing with creditors and collection agents:

• If you've been notified in writing that an account has been turned over to a collection agency if possible, pay the money you owe. You won't have to deal with the collection agency once the account has been cleared.
• If it's impossible for you to pay the full amount at once, contact the agency, explaining why. Offer some alternative method of repayment, either in a lump sum or a series of monthly payments. Don't send post dated cheques as no one knows what the future holds and this may add additional costs to your outstanding debt if any of the cheques bounce.
• Follow up your verbal repayment plan in writing and if possible, enclose a good-faith payment.
• Never send cash. Always make payments in a way that you always have a receipt for the money you paid. The receipt can be either a cancelled cheque from your bank or a  receipt from the collector who received the payment.
• Once the overdue account has been turned over to a collection agency, you will probably only be able to deal with the collection agency when making arrangements for payment. Usually the original creditor is no longer interested in trying to collect on this account and expects the collection agent to make all payment arrangements with the debtor.
• If there has been an error in the account contact the original creditor and notify the collection agency that there is an error.
• Your attitude towards paying the debt has a lot to do with how co-operative the collection agency will be.
• When making payments to the collection agency don't bounce cheques and miss payments.
• If your financial circumstances change, contact the collection agency and explain your current status and follow up in writing.
• Debts should not be treated lightly. They can result in court action, which could lead to  money being taken from your paycheque(garnishee) or seizure of your assets(such as bank account or item pledged for security).
• When an item has been reported to a credit reporting agency it most likely was sent to them by one of your creditors.
• Mistakes do happen when creditors report to credit reporting agencies and you can request corrections. 
• If the information was sent by one of your creditors you will need to go back to that original creditor who sent the incorrect information and request they send the correct information.