Tips for Dealing With Debt Collectors
January 29th, 2008Dealing with debt collector can be one ofthe most stressful and annoying things to deal with in life. The thought of debt collectors sending you threatening letters and phoning you day and night is not only intimidating, it can can make you feel sick with fear and worry. Thankfully you can protect yourself from debt collectors and there are laws in place so that you don’t feel intimidated.
The Fair Debt Collection Practices says that debt collectors can’t phone before 8am or after 9pm, they can’t take your wages or harass you with phone calls at all hours of the day and night.
Due to these practices you have a number of options. Tobegin with, you don’t actually have to take any debt collection calls. You can choose to use your answering machine to screen calls before you answer the phone. There are even call blocking services for filtering them out completely. Using a cellphone as your primary contact is also advisable because in many states, debt collectors are not allowed to call numbers that are in the tier-C or cellphone assigned numbers.
If you do decide to pick up the phone, the best thing to do is simply and politely ask them not to call again. If they give you an argument, politely tell them that they are violating state and federal laws regarding harassment as proposed by the FairDebt Collection Practices act and that can be held accountable for their actions. Legally they have to conform to your wishes, and you don’t have to send a “cease and desist” letter, a verbal acknowledgement is suffucuent. Legal action costs a lot of money so should be avoided if you can. There are other ways you can deal with this as well.
At the end of the day, if you took out a debt then you should make arrangements to pay them. This may sound difficult if you are struggling with money however it’s possible to negotiate a lower rate. By keeping up with your payments, the debt collector phone calls will end. While it may not seem like it, debt collectors are people too and are just doing their job, once an agreement has been set up and you stick to it, they will simply leave you alone and target other debtors.
Another important tactic is to start a diary and take notes of calls made and received along with the content of the conversation. If you decide to record the calls, make sure to tell the advisor what you are doing. When debt collectors know the call is being recorded, more often than not they’ll be on their best behaviour. Keeping an accurate A diary or recording can become very important if you have negotiated a better deal on the debt or if you have to approach the situation from a legal standpoint.
It may not be apparent to you but most debt collection agencies can reduce the amount you owe because they receive a percentage of the collected amount. They may think it’s worthwhile to have 50% of something than %100 of nothing. When you make an agreement about payment, you should ensure that the collection agency doesn’t add more black marks against your credit report. You should also be firm about them reporting quickly about payments you make and adjust the total amount due.
Make sure that all agreements are down in writing before sending large amounts of money. You should first send a small amount to show that you are committed to paying the debt however if you send too much they may not bother binding to your agreement.
The most important thing is to stay calm and patient throughout your conversations because you don’t want to get on the wrong side of them and make matters worse, nor do you want to stoop to their level. Always keep in yourmind that you are better than them and that the money that was loaned to you, the debt they are trying to collect is bearing interest and that thedebt collectors will get a piece of your money if you reach a settlement with them. As the old saying goes, “You can’t get blood from a stone”, this holds very true with debt collectors and if you make it very clear to them that harassing you will nto accomplish their intended results, they will also relinquish the time wasted trying to deal with you.
Many consumers inadvertandly find themselves in the predicament of having taken on too much debt without the means to repay all of their creditors in a timely manner thus incurring additional interest and fees. This scenario can happen to anyone particularly if there has been an emergency in the family or even for students trying to finance their college education on their credit cards. Such situations can lead to damage to the consumers credit rating and leave them feeling as if they have nowhere to turn. In most cases, Consolidating debts can be an effective method to not only reduce the number of monthly payments and climbing interest but it can also work to improve credit scores.
