A few weeks back, I had a weird phone call when I was working from my home office. The caller ID identified the out-of-state number as a debt collection agency. When the caller ID shows anything relating to collections, I immediately panic. I tend to think we’re on top of paying our debt, but what if I forgot something?
Well, it turns out the woman on the other end of the line was checking to see if one of my neighbors still lived in their house. I didn’t see any harm in telling her that the neighbors did still live there. But things got a little weird when, through the course of the conversation, she asked me to put a note on their door.
While I knew they were a collections agency, the woman never said what her company did, and she even identified the company by an acronym and not the name that showed up in caller ID. While trying to figure out why this woman had called me, she mentioned that she had been repeatedly unsuccessful in trying to get in touch with my neighbors. So, she wanted me to put her name and number on a piece of paper and tape it to my neighbor’s door.
I was completely shocked and didn’t know what to say. After she got off the phone, I started wondering what other tactics debt collectors use. Just today, I ran across an article on CNN Money that talks to 10 former debt collectors, who discuss their tactics.
The whole process made me wonder if I were ever in the situation of having a collections agency call me, do I have any rights? CNN Money had me covered again with this article. Digging a little deeper, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act lists our rights, if you’re ever curious.
The whole ordeal was quite the learning experience for me. Has anything like this ever happened to you and how did you handle it?
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