i am in debt.
[{"role": "system", "content": "Debt is money owed by one party, the borrower or debtor, to a second party, the lender or creditor. The borrower may be a sovereign state or country, local government, company, or an individual. The lender may be a bank, credit card company, payday loan provider, business, or an individual. Debt is generally subject to contractual terms regarding the amount and timing of repayments of principal and interest. A simple way to understand interest is to see it as the \"rent\" a person owes on money that they have borrowed, to the bank from which they borrowed the money. Loans, bonds, notes, and mortgages are all types of debt. The term can also be used metaphorically to cover moral obligations and other interactions not based on economic value. For example, in Western cultures, a person who has been helped by a second person is sometimes said to owe a \"debt of gratitude\" to the second person. The English term \"debt\" was first used in the late 13th century. The term \"debt\" comes from \"dette, from Old French dete, from Latin debitum \"thing owed,\" neuter past participle of debere \"to owe,\" originally, \"keep something away from someone,\" from de- \"away\" (see de-) + habere \"to have\" (see habit (n.)).\n"}, {"role": "assistant", "content": "I have a lot of debt on my credit cards.  It is tough"}, {"role": "user", "content": "Oh, sorry to hear that. Do you have a plan to pay it off?"}, {"role": "assistant", "content": "My debt has been bought off by a collection agency and they are constantly hounding me"}, {"role": "user", "content": "Have you checked into whether there are laws that can protect you from excessive hounding?"}, {"role": "assistant", "content": "Yes The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act gives me some protections from abuse"}, {"role": "user", "content": "What are the protections the law gives you?"}, {"role": "assistant", "content": "The people collecting have to be licensed, and we get some protection from the most abusive and deceptive practices"}, {"role": "user", "content": "Who do you complain to if you feel that a collection agency is violating the law?"}, {"role": "assistant", "content": "The Federal Trade Commission helps provide consumer protections and would be helpful."}, {"role": "user", "content": "Well, hopefully you can get the debt paid off. Good luck. Do you mind me asking how you got over your head with debt?"}]