Collection Agencies

[CoffeeGuy]

Anyone ever have problems with collection agencies ?

[gitreel]

Nope.

I just pick up the phone and then hang up on them.

[shelbyGT]

Nope, I pay my bills.

[thecoalman]

Yep ,they are too slow....

[CoffeeGuy]

Just curious. I'm being hounded for a bill I dont owe.

[bazooka]

You could get one of those privacy machines that hooks to your phone.

People would need a numeric code in order to actually call you.

If they do not have the code, they get hung up on.

[thecoalman]

Just curious. I'm being hounded for a bill I dont owe.

Well if you don't owe it I would contact whoever is saying you owe it too and point out their mistake. You may also want to make sure it hasn't affected your credit.

If you do not owe them anything and they continue to bother you legal action is always a option, even if you do owe it they are restricted in what they can do to collect. There are many laws you have to follow for bill collection and they vary from state to state if your in the U.S. Do a search on Google and know your rights. The collection agency isn't going to go away by ignoring them.


I don't have this problem, where I live bills can be collected through small claims court. You tend to get paid pretty quick when they get a "Notice to Appear".

[CoffeeGuy]

I'm not being contacted by phone, but by letter. Just wondering what my rights are as well as theirs.
But this privacy machine sounds very interesting. It would put an end to all unwanted calls.

[thecoalman]

For telemarketers you can get rid of them here : www.donotcall.gov

[smearbrick1]

Collection agencies have to employee the most ruthless and uncaring ******** on the planet. My mother had a tendancy to shirk her responsibility to pay the family bills on time and was contacted several times by collection agents. The same collection agent would call 4-5 times a day and speak with her all 4-5 times. Not only would they threaten our livelihood, they would also scream at her over the phone.

I, fortunately, have never had to deal with them personally. A few things you may want to remember when you have a collection agent hounding you:

1. Collection agents cannot call your home prior to 8:00am.

2. Collection agents may not call your home and speak with you more than 2 times a day. Any more than this and it's harrassment.

3. Any time you have an outstanding debt to work out, never... never...never work with the collection agent to handle it. Always deal with the main company.

I have worked in a customer service environment (student loan industry) for the last eight years and have learned these and other great ways of handling these and other nuisance calls.

For telemarketers:

Use the do not call list mentioned earlier in this thread.

If someone calls you (must be unsolicited) and tries to sell you something, get their name, company name, and address and report them. You can make money turning these people in.

[thayne]

Just write them back and dispute it. I had the same thing happen and once I made it clear they were wrong and that I would sue them if they didn't drop it they went away

[DVD_Ripper]

I had signed up for a Sears Credit Card and then moved out of town and stupid me.... forgot to tell them.

Well, I never paid that $19.50 bill and then sent collection agency on me... For $20 bucks.

Well I paid of course by my credit was F@$&ED for a few years .... but that was 20 years ago.

[ViRaL1]

If it was sent to a collection agency you probably could have gotten them down to $10. Even then I'd probably spread the payments out over a year. Sometimes it's fun being an ass, and others, well it's just necessary.

[Doramius]

Here are some more pointers.

-If the bill is not yours, you'll notice first by the name of someone else it is addressed to. Legally, you are not supposed to open it because it is not addressed to you. You can write on the envelope "Return to Sender - incorrect address for addressee". You can do this on and mail that is addressed to someone else. If it says, "Or Current Resident", then it's regular junk mail.
-If it's addressed to you, open it and verify any information that is related to you. Call up the company with the claim number, but do not give you Social Security number. It will piss the people off, but you don't want them to have your number if it's a scam or if they have names crossed. Let them know that you do not have an account with this company and that you want a phone number for the company that's reporting your information to them. They have to give it to you. It's usualy just a general servicing number. Call the main company and straighten things out, but do not give your social security number. Check your credit after you receive notification. It should show in your credit report, before you receive collection documentation. Collection documentation means you have already been reported to the credit reporting agencies for an uncollected debt.

If they hassle you continuously by phone and by mail for a debt that does not show on your credit or you are truly not responsible for, then you can seek legal action against them.

-If you have a hit on your credit, then you need to contact the main company and ask them for full documentation and proof that you established an account with them. They are REQUIRED to give this to you, however, they may take forever in doing this.

[JohnnyCNote]

You have rights spelled out by the FTC. The main thing you need is to get their address, if they'll give it to you. Then you can write and demand they cease from calling you. They count on you not knowing your rights and being able to intimidate you. If you want to have some fun you can always sieze control of the call and throw them off, but that won't stop them.

They will never accept that you either don't owe the money or don't have it. They always believe you're lying and have thousands upon thousands of dollars just sitting in the bank. They will try to contact you at work and do anything else they can get away with, counting on you not knowing your rights.

The truth is they are far more likely to lie than the people they harass. I can post some links if you need them.....

[macleod]

@Coffeeguy.

I worked for a Collection Agency for about 5 years and in the world of "collections" for about 10.

If you dont owe the bill you can dispute it. You have 30 days to do that (although you do so afterwards).

There is a thing called the FDCPA, which all 3rd party collectors (usually collection agencies and attorneys) must abide by. Most of the items in the FDCPA are common sense stuff and most 1st party (original creditors) abide by it, pretty much out of courtesy. Also, each state (and rarely city/county) has specific laws above and beyond what is in the FDCPA (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act).

If anyone wants information on collection agencies and debt collections, please let me know.

Actually, there is a collection agency I plan on suing here fairly shortly. I got a cell phone about a year ago and the phone number that I got was apparently owned by a Diana @#%$#$%#. Anyway, she was a very bad girl because she has collection agencies calling her like crazy. Now the sucky part (for me) is that this phone is a tracfone (prepaid by the minute) and a call is like .25 a minute. I have been keeping a record of their calls and my calls back informing them that this is not the correct number, etc. Now for the fun time.....