Credit, debt and your rights
Know what you owe, and what they can do about it.
Most sites about credit and debt are trying to sell you a loan. This one is not — it explains what the law says, how scoring works, and what to do when a collector calls, and then it stops.
If you search for almost anything about borrowing, you land on a page that exists to send you to a lender. The advice is not always wrong, but it is written by someone paid on your application, and that shows in what gets emphasised and what quietly does not.
What this site does instead
It explains the mechanics. What the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act actually prohibits. Why the balance on your statement is the one that scores, not the balance you carry. What a lender verifies against documents and what it simply believes. These are facts with sources, not opinions with an angle.
What it will not do
No interest rates, because a rate published today is wrong next week and we have no live data. No lender recommendations and no application links, because a site paid on referrals is a site with a reason to steer you. And nothing here is legal advice — where a situation turns on your state or your specific facts, the page says so and points you at who can actually answer it.
What the law gives you
The federal statutes that govern debt collectors and credit bureaus, in plain language — what they must do, what they cannot do, and how to make them prove it.
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Cease and Desist Debt Collector: What a Stop-Contact Letter Does
Learn how a written cease and desist letter stops debt collector calls under 15 U.S.C. 1692c(c), what it doesn't do, and when it's the wrong move.
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Credit Freeze vs Fraud Alert: Which to Use
Compare credit freeze and fraud alert: what they block, how long they last, and which fits your situation. Both are free under federal law.
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Fair Debt Collection Practices Act: Your Rights
The FDCPA (15 U.S.C. §1692) sets rules for third-party debt collectors. Learn what they can and cannot do, your rights, and how to enforce them.
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Fair Credit Reporting Act: Consumer Rights Under FCRA
The FCRA (15 U.S.C. § 1681) gives consumers the right to see, dispute, and correct credit reports. Learn what it covers and its limits.
How credit actually works
What moves a score, what does not, and how long anything stays on your file. The mechanics rather than the folklore.
Understanding loans
The structures behind the paperwork — secured against unsecured, revolving against instalment, and what a lender is actually assessing.
The questions people arrive with
Can a debt collector really call my employer?
A third-party collector may contact your workplace to locate you, but not once it knows you cannot take calls there, and it must not reveal to a colleague that the call concerns a debt. Tell them in writing that workplace contact is not permitted and that contact must stop. The rules sit in 15 U.S.C. Sec. 1692c.
Does checking my own credit score lower it?
No. Checking your own file is a soft inquiry and is not visible to lenders or used in scoring. Only an application that produces a hard inquiry affects the score, and even then the effect is small and short-lived compared with payment history or utilization.
If a debt is too old to sue over, do I still owe it?
The obligation does not disappear — what expires is the collector's ability to win a lawsuit over it. It can still be reported for its normal period and you can still be asked to pay. The trap is that in many states a single partial payment restarts the clock, so acknowledging an old debt can revive a right to sue that had lapsed.
Is a credit freeze free?
Yes. Placing, lifting and removing a security freeze with each of the three nationwide bureaus is free by federal law, and so is a fraud alert. Any service charging you for it is selling something you can do yourself at no cost.