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 collector called, which was after she had already paid the bill. Keeping in mind what I do for a living, she was pleasant with the 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 collection agents might find themselves with fewer accounts to deal with. The less debtors that a collection agent has to call, the more times they will probably try to contact the debtors they do have to try to get that commission. Additionally, 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 debt collector called the first time, they would have gotten paid in the past. Whatever the reason may be, if you have a debt collector calling you constantly, keep in mind that it is not a good idea to simply ignore them. Ignoring a debt collector 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 Rapid Recovery Solution and writes articles about national collection agencies.
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