In article one in this series I spoke about the growing problem of bill collectors calling more and more frequently as the economy suffers. From recent research, complaints about collection agents cursing and threatening debtors, and calling at inconvenient times rose steadily, but complaints about repeated phone calls shot up from 15,000 to 41,000 far outnumbering other complaints.
In the last article I told you a story my mother told me about how she was repeatedly called by a store’s collection department about a small bill that she had before it was due. The store was calling because it anticipated payment to be late, and was calling multiple times a day for several days starting at eight in the morning and ending at eight thirty at night.
Well, she paid the bill before it got late, and picked up the last time a collection agent called her, which was after she had already paid her bill. Bearing in mind what I do for a living, she was nice with the debt collector but alluded to the fact that the store must really be suffering to have called her as much for a small amount that was only anticipated to be late. The collection agent was nice, and admitted that he was embarrassed to have been calling so many times.
So that brings us to the question “why?” Why are debt collectors calling so many times? There are a number of possible reasons. For one, in today’s economy, even debt collection is suffering, and debt collectors may find themselves with fewer accounts to deal with. The less debtors that a collector has to call, the more times they will most likely try to contact the debtors they do have to try to get that commission. Also, most debt collectors do not work for the original creditor. What happens is that the creditor will sell their debt for much less than was originally owed, or the creditor will hire a third party collection agency on commission, in which case the agency only gets paid when it collects.
Additionally, the simplest answer might be that many Americans used to be in a position where they could have paid off their debt, and now are not. When the collection agent called the first time, they would have gotten paid in the past. Whatever the reason may be, if you have a collection agent calling you constantly, keep in mind that it is not a good idea to simply ignore them. Ignoring a collection agent means negative credit scores, further collection action, or even a lawsuit. And also remember that the FDCPA prohibits third party collectors from repeatedly calling debtors, but the definition of repeatedly is if you hang up the phone, and get an immediate phone call, hang up the phone again, and get another immediate phone call. In other words, if the phone is ringing off of the hook.
Mallory Megan works for Uk marriage visa Rapid Recovery Solution and writes articles about credit Uk marriage visa collection agencies.