DO YOU HAVE HARASSING BILL COLLECTORS IN YOUR LIFE?

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Did you know that I was a bill collector for over 17 years?  That’s right! I did that job, not because I liked it, but because I needed the money.  When I was a collector, I would get harassed by people all the time.  I had to change my phone number at home to non-published and changed my name when talking to people.  Most of us had aliases because of the threats that we would get.  Now I know that this sounds backwards, because most bill collectors harass consumers, but it’s true.  We would get bomb threats.   Once someone came in and paid their bill and then set off a smoke bomb outside our office door.  I would personally get threats on my life and had to basically hide out so that they couldn’t find me.  It just wasn’t fun!

So as a consumer, how do you handle those nasty bill collectors?

Well, the first thing you must do is be able to communicate with them and have a plan when you get on the phone, and never waiver from it.  If you need to offer a payment arrangement, then know going in how much you CAN afford and stick to that number.  If you’re trying to settle your account, then make sure that you can pay what you say you’re going to pay.  Did you know that you can settle accounts with collection agencies and don’t have to pay the full amount?  In most cases, settlements are how collection agencies make all their money.   It’s much more beneficial to settle for a lesser amount if you have a lump sum because you could save thousands. 

If you’re being harassed by a collection agency to the point where you can’t deal with it anymore, then you can send them a cease and desist letter.  What this does is tells them to stop communicating with you.  Believe it or not, this is a federal law.   You can ask for no communication from a collection agency.  This is one of the most effective ways to stop those harassing calls from coming in.  But remember that it doesn’t make the debt go away, it just stops the calls.  You will still have to handle your debt sometime down the road. 

As a consumer, you have rights.  A cease and desist letter is part of those rights.  You can view all of your rights as a consumer by visiting the Federal Trade Commission website at: www.ftc.gov.   Look up the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act in the search menu.  That’s the law that was passed in the late 70’s to safeguard consumer from those nasty debt collectors, at the time, they were running rampant with threatening consumers with anywhere from breaking legs to throwing them in jail for not paying up.  Thank goodness that has a changed. 

The Debt Lady says, “Know your rights, know them well and you will never be harassed again!”

If you would like to submit a question for the Debt Lady, email it to thedebtlady@thedebtlady.com. Follow the Debt Lady on Twitter at the_debtlady, on Facebook at debt lady and the Blog at thedebtlady.blogspot.com.