How Do You Stop Telephone Collection Harassment?
While U.S. telemarketers were forbidden, effective September 1, 2009, to make computer-generated calls to homeowners without prior written consent, debt collectors were exempted from this law. The obvious way to end debt-related calls, of course, is to pay your bills. Actually, taking the call and politely explaining your situtation to the representative can make the calls less frequent. There are even ways that might stop the calls entirely. Verify that the caller is a debt-collection agency or creditor. You can look up the number on your caller ID at any of the following sites: whocalled.us, whocallsme.com and 800notes.com. If it is, in fact, a debt-collection agency and you won’t or can’t pay the debt, proceed to Step 2. Call back the debt-collection agency or creditor at the number given in its message. If it leaves no message, pick up when it next calls. Request a “written collections notice sent via U.S. Mail.” It has five business days from the date of the phone call to comply.
