 Oh, those annoying debt collection phone calls! They come at seemingly the
most inopportune times of the day. During dinner, while entertaining guests or
family members. On top of this, those who call are very difficult to deal with
in a sane and calm manner.
What can be done to stop these calls? How can I get my sanity back? Here are
some things that you can do in order to put a stop to these calls.
Change Phone numbers. Believe it or not, this is a common practice. Yes, it
will stop the phone calls from occurring at your residence, but collection
agencies and debt collectors use stealthy tactics in order to get other numbers
to call. The numbers that they obtain are usually other family members and they
are not nice with them, either. Plus, there is the embarrassment of having
others tell you that someone keeps calling their number to try and find you.
Send a letter. You can send them a “cease and desist” letter which, by law,
they are bound to honor. If you do this, be sure to include a comment to the
effect that they must stop calling any numbers that are shown on the account or
have been obtained in trying to collect on a debt. There will be varying
degrees of success with this method, but it is worth the time and effort,
because if they continue, then they can be sued for violating federal laws.
Negotiate directly with Creditor. Get in touch with your creditors about your
unpaid accounts. Set up payments with them directly and do not have any
dealings with the debt collectors.
If you continue to get harassing calls from debt collectors, obtain a recording
device for your phone and then call them back and ask them what their initial
call was about and after allowing them to go through their routine, inform them
that you have recorded the conversation. Even if you cannot use the recording
because of state laws, you can transcribe the call onto paper and use it against
them as well.
Inform your creditor of the tactics that are being employed by their debt
collection agency.
Pay the account in full. Settle your account with the creditor by setting up a
re-payment plan that you stick to like glue. Once you have paid it off, keep a
copy of your final statement as proof. Get a credit report that shows the debt
as paid off, and then use it as proof in any future attempts by debt collectors
to try to get money out of you by illegal means.
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Reducing Debt