“How to legally collect debt according to the Debt Collection Act B.E. 2558”

Abstract

                   As Thailand has been confronting the economic crisis for a long time, a large number of people have inevitably encountered financial problems. Although there are a number of people who ran up debts in a system with clear evidences of loan and legal interest as prescribed by law, it was found that a large number of people have got into debt outside the official system, with an illegal interest. The result was that when they could not or would not pay back within the promised timeframe, the payment might be claimed by improper methods: violation of privacy rights, threats, harassment, violence, or impairing one's reputation, etc. Unavoidably, these problems have had an effect on the general public. Consequently, it was necessary to enact a law in order to protect debtors and guarantors, who are natural persons. The law currently in place is the Debt Collection Act B.E. 2558, whose main points are rules, approaches in terms of debt claim; and especially, penalty for violators. This Act would be a tool to control the demanding for the payment of debts, both debts within the system, and outside the official system. Nevertheless, it was found that the Debt Collection Act B.E. 2558 still has a few loopholes. The debtors might fall under control of the creditors and are in fear of the creditors' influence. Therefore, they are afraid to take a legal action and bring a case to court. Besides, many debtors have no knowledge concerning the right processes in terms of debt collection. Consequently, the enforcement of this act has not fully achieved its goal. Therefore, there should be a serious punishment of the creditors who do not follow the processes and methods in debt collection as well as a propagation of the rights of the debtors. Furthermore, instilling financial discipline in people will lead to a decreasing number of debtors and debt claim problems and the enforcement of this act will eventually reach its intention and truly correspond with legal ethics.