Do you watch the caller id like a hawk hoping that it isn’t another collection agency calling to collect funds for overdue balances from over a year ago? My roommate and I recently had a conversation regarding the trauma that the collection agencies left on her. Remembering back to her younger years, she recalls when her mother would repeatedly tell her that if anyone from a collection agency were to call, to tell them that the person they were calling for wasn’t home. She was left with the impression that collection agencies are “bad” people and that they can take you to jail. To this day, at the age of 23, she is still encumbered by fear with the memories of getting calls from the collection agencies.

So, you may be one of those people because your parents didn’t pay their bills while you were growing up, however, you don’t have to be one now! There are ways to deal with and avoid getting calls from a collection agency. They are as follows:

1. Always pay your bills on time. This is what got your parents into a trap the first time; don’t be a follower!
2. So, maybe you are in a bit of a pickle with your bills, if you do get a notice, don’t ignore it. Follow up on it with the creditor and tell them your situation. Often times you can set up a payment plan to pay off the debt slowly.
3. Become familiar with the Fair Debt Collection Practices. There are certain laws that you may not know that could be beneficial to you when getting bombarded with calls from collection agencies.
4. If you are currently in some type of debt program, i.e. credit counseling or debt settlement, you can send letters to your creditors informing them that you are taking care of your debt and to not call. If they receive some type of written documentation like the example given, they cannot call you.
5. If collection agencies are after you, make sure the figures they are giving you are accurate. Often times there could be errors in their reports or your creditors’ as well.
6. If you believe that you have paid a specific bill but are being chased by collections, find all proof that you may have of paying the funds, and don’t wait another day to get that taken care of. It takes 7 years to get reports of late payments off of your credit report.

There you have it! Some tips of dealing with or avoiding calls from collection agencies.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 23rd, 2006 at 11:59 am and is filed under Credit, Debt, Personal Finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.