Debt Collectors

In collecting a debt from a consumer transaction where payment was deferred, a debt collector, meaning anyone engaging directly or indirectly in debt collection, may not engage in any of these:

• §Wis. Stat. 427.104
• §Wis. Stat. 427.103

• Using or threatening force or violence against the customer, the customer's dependents or property.
• Threatening criminal prosecution.
• Contacting or threatening to contact the customer's employer before a final judgment, except as a statute permits, to verify employment or earnings, or through an employer's debt counseling service.
• Disclosing information affecting the customer's reputation to someone with no legitimate business need for it, other than the customer's spouse.
• Disclosing a debt the customer reasonably disputes without saying that it is disputed.
• Communicating so often, at such unusual hours, or in such a manner as can reasonably be expected to threaten or harass the customer, or using obscene or threatening language.
• Claiming or threatening to enforce a right the collector knows or has reason to know does not exist.
• Using a communication that looks like legal process, or like it comes from a government agency or a lawyer, when it does not.
• Threatening action that is not taken in the regular course or not intended for that debt.

• §Wis. Stat. 427.104

A person injured by a violation may recover actual damages and a penalty, and actual damages include emotional distress or mental anguish, with or without physical injury. A customer induced to surrender collateral by a violation may recover it, if the merchant still has it, with damages for its loss of use.

• §Wis. Stat. 427.105

The amount of the penalty is set by another section of the consumer act, not covered here. The time limits on old debts are on their own page.

• §Wis. Stat. 427.105