How many times have you dealt with bill collector harassment? Even when you are completely innocent and they clearly have the wrong person, they can be completely relentless. They’re rude, insulting and many times cross the line by breaking the law.
I found a way to beat bill collector harassment and get these people off your case. The details are found in the Credit Secrets Bible.
Bill collectors at times have made my life and just about everyone I know miserable at one point or another. They call you up at work and demand that you pay them for a debt that you’re really not even sure you owe. When you start to ask questions to understand the situation, they often become violently rude and are outright vulgar. They curse, threaten, lie or do whatever scare tactics they can come up with to make you pay. And there’s never any compassion or willingness to negotiate.
If you actually do owe the debt, the amount they come up with is usually inflated and can be two or three times the amount that you actually owe. How can they get away with this?
They usually do get away with it, but you don’t have to let them. First of all, as the consumer, you are protected by law. Even if you owe the money, the collector must treat you fairly and respect your privacy. The federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) sets the national standard for collection agencies, which explains that collectors cannot be deceptive, threaten to sue in order to get your money, suggest that you will be arrested, lie about the amount of money you owe, or say they will garnish wages if they can’t.
Why are Bill Collectors Harassing Me?
When a creditor does not receive their payment for several months, they sell the bad debt to a third party company, usually at a discount. The creditor gets some money, rather than a total loss, and the third party agency has an opportunity to collect the full debt and make a profit. Many times, though, they tack on loads of fees in order to make a substantial gain on the collection.
The collector now has a high interest in receiving the payment, which they are willing to get at all costs. However, often times they simply have the wrong person. The data they received from the original lender may be wrong, or they may have found you by doing a background search. It’s also common for these bad loans to be sold and resold to collection agencies several times over, and eventually mistakes are made or accurate information gets mixed with misinformation. Regardless, they usually go after you with no mercy.
What Should I Do?
First, do not ignore them. Even if the debt is not yours, you want to understand the situation and clear up the misunderstanding. It could be a case of identity theft, which means you may have more problems on your hands that you’ll need to tackle right away.
Always be the one in control of the conversation by asking the questions. Get names of the collector contacting you, the agency, the amount you owe, who you owe it to, and ask these questions several times to make sure their story does not change. Be sure to clearly ask what the amount you owe is, and the breakdown of the fees, interest or any other payments. Legally, the collector can not charge you more than the actual amount you owe.
Keep a file of every conversation you have regarding the claim, and keep track of names, dates and times of the call. Request every conversation to be followed up in writing, and you do have the right to ask them to stop calling and to handle business only in writing. You may even demand they stop contacting you entirely, in which case they can legally contact you one more time in writing to outline their plan of action.
What if the Bill is Not Mine?
Do not be fooled or threatened into paying a bill that is not yours just to get the creditor off your back. Any payment you make is acknowledgment that you owe the debt, which could lead to more trouble for you down the road.
The first step is to file a dispute by using one of the debt collection letters in the Credit Secrets Bible. After you file a dispute, the collection agency must stop collection efforts and conduct an investigation on their claim. They are required by law to validate the debt by obtaining verification from the original creditor.
If they are unable to validate the claim, ask for written confirmation that the collector is not holding you accountable for the debt. Even after properly disputing the claim with the collector, the debt could be sold to another collector down the road, and you want to have this formal documentation on hand in case the bill collector harassment comes back.
Millionaire Money Habit: If you owe the debt, get it settled so you can work on repairing your credit, but that does not mean you have to take the abuse of bill collector harassment. Make sure you understand the law and let them know you expect them to abide by it.
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When one of my friends got her first cell phone, she was assigned a number by T-Mobile. It appears that the previous person had not only defaulted on the number but on a lot of other bills as well. She was getting harassing calls, some nights the phone wouldn’t stop ringing even though she didn’t answer it. If she answered, she’d say "Look, I just bought this phone and number." But it didn’t help.
So she made T-mobile change her number. Luckily, that’s easier to change than an address (or worse a mis-identified name).
How weird! Sadly, I have very close friends that were harrassed by bill collectors for something that was not even their debt. It was such a headache they ended up just paying the bill because the collectors made their life so miserable.
Unfortunately, it happens all the time.
Mrs. Micah, I have the exact same problem as your friend. I got a cell phone from T-Mobile and it must have belonged to some mortgage defaulter because I keep getting a mortgage company calling me and calling me some other name (not mine) and asking for me to call them back to work out my mortgage. Its crazy! I’ve told them several times that I am not that guy but they still keep calling.