6
Getting Personal
Getting Personal
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About the author
Christopher Farrell is economics editor of Marketplace Money, a nationally syndicated one-hour weekly personal finance show produced by American Public Media.
To Kay Baker:
I looked for your financial question on google and couldn't really find it. Found a lot of other Kay Bakers though. Stop being paranoid.
To everyone else: From my experience, the best way to deal with the debt collectors for someone-not-you is to call them back right away to tell them it is not about you. These companies do not want to waste their time making bad calls; they want to collect the debt. The daily calls will stop within 24 hours of your contacting them... until they sell the debt down the line to someone else. Then rinse and repeat as necessary. Typically, they won't sell until the next fiscal quarter. So with a little time on your part, you can push daily calls that fill-up your inbox to essentially managable quarterly calls.
If it is someone you know who has the debt; tell the debt collector their number and address. Why should you receive calls at 7am on Sundays while your relative/friend gets to sleep late.
Several options apply: Do the letter thing, and definitely spend for the return receipt. Or change your phone number. Or listen to the phone calls. Or put the phone down and walk away for five minutes when you know it is not for you. I recommend the last one; the individual calling will get the message eventually, you will have to repeat this for each call but then it is their time wasted, not yours.
I've had debt collectors phoning my telephone number for a decade looking for Leticia A. I've sent letters to half a dozen companies. The debt and phone number are evidently sold to another collection agency. The AG of Washington wrote me years ago that FDCPA didn't apply as I was not the debtor.
The harassing collection efforts described in your story sound like a pretty clear violation of the FDCPA. As a lawyer and member of the National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA.net) I would suggest that the best way to handle such a matter for a non-lawyer consumer would be to contact a member attorney who practices in the FDCPA area. Note also that because of the often systemically embedded nature of the particular wrong combined with the relatively low stakes or "amount in controversy" and high hassle factor for a single consumer to right such a wrong, these matters are often most effectively corrected by class action litigation as described in the FDCPA law. Attorneys fee awards and fines for the prevailing party are also provided for by the FDCPA. A NACA member attorney would be the right person to contact to evaluate such a matter, and can be reached through the NACA website.
Quick thought--it is likely the unknown person debt collectors are calling for does not also have the same address on her record. Invoking the debt collection act requirement that all communication be in writing is likely to stop harassment, as your caller can just tell the debt collection agency that communication should be sent to the address currently on their records.
