Creditors crossing the line??

I wanted to get some of ya'lls views on something.
If a creditor is calling a customer due to non payment how much is too much? I can understand 1 time a day at the different phone numbers that the customer gave(home,cell or work). What about 2,3 or 4 times a day at your work or on your cell? How long would put up with multiple messages or multiple calls before seeking legal council or contacting a state or government agency?
This is not happening to me since my bills have been current due to my wife whipping me into shape when we started dating.

*** edit: From the responses it looks like I left this too broad. A friend that I ust to work with now does collections for a finance company. He told me that recently their dialer system got a bug or error and keeps calling customers several times a day and sometimes 15 min apart. I told him I would be pissed and file harasement if I were a customer. Just wanted to see what other people thought. I know if you owe someone then pay up or at least pay something but that is not always the case.

 

If it were me I would contact the creditor and work something out, otherwise they will just keep calling. Some of them can get pretty ruthless and verbally abusive. My limit of what is acceptable and your may differ however abusive language and threats of harm are a quick way to end a call for me. I think the worst thing is a lot of creditors know their people are like this and turn a bit of a blind eye to it.

 

Tell whoever to pay their bills and the calls will stop. Why do people continue to spend more than they can afford. I also don't want to hear the excuses of people losing their jobs, etc, that is what savings are for.

 

It;s not that simple. If a person gets sick and stuck with a large medical bill that can wipe a person or families savings away quicker than you think. I am just saying without knowing everything on the person you can't just pass that judgement on. Now, if it is a result of overspending then that can be another matter.

 

Since this person is getting calls at work i assume they are making money. They need to work out a payment plan with the creditors.

I don't think there should be a limit. The person needs to pay up. Getting legal council doesn't solve anything. They need to pay the money they owe.

 

Very true. But ignoring calls is irresponsible.

 

They won't stop, and they shouldn't stop. The person has not paid them the money they OWE to them. Due to whatever circumstance, it don't matter the creditor. Fact is, money is owed to them, period, dot.

Now, what you CAN do is contact Consumer Credit Counseling Services or CCCS (check your local yellowpages). Once they are involved, the calls will stop. I have had the unfortunate reality of going through this many, many years ago. It saved my credit and also taught me a few lessons. I no longer have money problems as I live well within my means and owe very few people.

 

Perhaps we can find out a little more on the specifics of the person getting called? Maybey how they got in this spot and have they made any attempts at working with the creditors?

 

That is why I said earlier they should contact the creditor and work something out.

 

I found that so long as you contact them first and say, hey I'm going to be late, or I'll be missing a payment, but I'll get it to you next month. They are generally pretty good.

 

They can call all they want. What they can't do is call before 8am and after 9pm (pretty sure of the times). Thay also can not call you at work if you tell them you are not allowed calls of this type during work. They have every right to call as often as they like to collect a debt, but there are consumer rights against harsh and unfair tactics.

 

By law, you are only supposed to call between the hours of 8am -9pm. You are only supposed to make 1 call to each number, once a day. Also if you leave a message or voicemail you cannot say why or where you are calling from. Typically you would say:

"Hello, this message is for John Doe. This is Jane Doe please call me back at 999-999-9999."

Anymore than this and it can be against the law. You also can't say the message is urgent.

I used to work in collections, not a fun job. I can only imagine now in today's economy how bad it is. I also had to do field calls where I had to visit the customer's home and or work.

Also, if a customer requests not to call the work then by law you have to do abide to this. If a customer sends you a certified letter to "cease and desist" all communication you have to abide by this too. Only way you can collect at that point is thru the court system.

There are a ton of laws to protect the consumer but most don't know about them. I am sure most people get harrassed when receiving collection calls.

 

By law they have to stop contacting a person if told to. Plus, they are not allowed to hassle or harrass people at their work numbers. If they know a number is a work number and that a particular company forbids outside calls, they have to stop calling there by law (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act) .
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre27.pdf

It sounds like they would be liable.

 

This is very true. When my employee’s get collection calls, be it on their cell or work phone, I take the phone and go total ape **** on the poor collection dill weed on the other end. I have no sympathy for these jerks. If the person is at work, they are on “my” time. Unless they are going to pay my workers for “my” time (at my pay scale) never call one of my employee’s during work!

I won’t debate the failings of people paying their debt. We all make mistakes; some just do it better then others.

I would have to disagree with this. While I understand the point, the problem is the collectors; they seem to always have unlisted, restricted, or Customer service as their ID. Do you really answer your phone when this comes up on caller ID? They never seem to have the actual bank, credit card, car loan company name come up.

Thank You Sir!

 

send $20 dollars a week , if that's what you can afford

set up an agreement or payment plan. (rule #1 get it in writing)

or if you owe $ 100 and and have $75, talk with them

they will probably take the $75 today and charge off

the rest, kills the credit tho, but at least you paid it

on another note :
they will have free time to call someone else 8 or 9 times

 

Concur on the rest- cept the bold. He didn't say answer right away. But they'll leave a message most of the time.

And you should KNOW when they owe someone some money. If you are getting a ton of phone calls from "Unlisted" or "Customer Service"- You should be man/woman enuf to figure out what is going on and fix it.

Concur with the post about about calling them and working something out ASAP. Make a plan and stick to it.

 

Boys after three pavements are missed the Recovery Guys are set loose on the vehicle..That's how it works up here in Canada ..not sure in the U.S

 

Been through the ruthless thing. I sadly lost my Tacoma in the Decline of '09. Creditors would rather harass and repo than work out something reasonable during temporary economic downturns. When they say "ok, so pay 1.5x payments, until you catch up or we take the truck,," Hello,,, pay cut and already behind for a couple of months. If I could manage that we wouldn't be talking. Every time you do talk with someone it's like a conversation with an Alzheimer's patient.

Will buy another within a year, but for now it's beatin' feet. What can you do, they've got the cards.

 

Im in collections and you are right in the aspect that they can only call between those hours and leave that info but that only applys if the acct is closed and no longer with the original creditor BUT if the acct is still active and and your just late on a pmt then certain laws do not apply.

 

You also live in California where the laws are much different than most all other states when it comes to collections.