I am not a bill collecter!

[frgsnlzrds]

Is there a law that protects me from other people's bills? Over the past year, I have gotten calls from various institutions and bill collectors about OTHER PEOPLE'S bills!

My mom, my dad and my sister have all gone delinquent on something. The worst one was a couple months ago when my dad switched over to a bill consolidation service and this one guy kept calling my house. When I told him I'd had enough of his harassment of me, because I didn't owe him anything, he called me a bad daughter and said I didn't care about my father at all because I wouldn't help him! After I calmed down and told him I would call the police if he ever dialed my number again, he stopped calling me.

But look, I will not be used to humiliate my family. I am not getting a commission to get them to pay up. Stop calling me.

And family? NEVER PUT ME DOWN AS A REFERENCE AGAIN!!!! I pay all my bills on time, I don't deserve this!

[ha98ed14]

That's beyong bizarre. Do you mean it is common practive for bill collection agencies to call your family members if you don't pay on a cc or something? I cannot remember EVER having to put down a reference when I bought something. Just for a job. That is crazy. I'm so sorry. Maybe you could just tell them that you are no longer on speaking terms with the person just so they will leave you alone. I think you are right not to bring it up to your family members. I would be mortified if my mom or my sister said, "So I got a call from your cc company..."

[pinkmomagain]

Oh it gets worse. Since we are unlisted, someone called MY parents house about my DH's bro!!!!! How did the collectors even make the connection? It was only one call, but if it happens again, we're calling the police. I really think in this economy, things are just going to get worse and these collectors are just going to get more aggressive/outrageous.

[frgsnlzrds]

Isn't it harassment? I mean, if we don't owe them money, they have no reason to call us, right?

And pinkmomagain, to call the ILs??? That's just ballsy. Wow.

[love_a_latte]

Yeah, it sucks.

[o_mom]

Google 'fair collection practices' or something similar. You should be able to get a list of things they can and can't do. They are allowed to call you, but I think that once you ask them not to call you again they must stop. However, if the debt is sold, the new firm can contact you again. There are many websites with the info on your rights (and theirs), so arm yourself with information. We had many calls about SIL and MIL - I told them we didn't have any information and please don't call again. If you tell them you know your rights and will report them (I'm not sure which agency - not the police, but one of the federal ones) they usually stop.

[cvanbrunt]

That's happened to us a couple of times. They are just hoping to stumble on someone who thinks they actually might be responsible for their relative's debt.

[LarsMal]

Google 'fair collection practices' or something similar. You should be able to get a list of things they can and can't do. They are allowed to call you, but I think that once you ask them not to call you again they must stop.

:yeahthat:

I think it's called the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act. I had to look it up and become familiar with it when we were being called NON-STOP for something regarding a family member. They would call and call and call and when I'd ask what it was about they'd say they couldn't tell me. I'd tell them if they couldn't tell me then they shouldn't be calling me b/c that family member did not live with me!!! I honestly didn't even know how they tracked me down b/c I was NOT a reference.

I finally told them I was aware of the FDCPA (or whatever it's called) and if they called again I would report them. It finally stopped.

[Momof3Labs]

We've been called a LOT about the previous owners of this house. The IRS even came knocking at the door looking for them (we weren't home; they left a card)!! I have to say, I called the IRS woman the next business day and she was VERY nice when I explained that we had purchased the house from them in July 20xx - they left us alone after that. It will usually stop when we explain, but then when the debt is sold to yet another agency, it starts again.

[hez]

I just got called for my brother not 20 minutes ago. I get called for him every 3 or 4 years. I told them he had never lived here, would never live here, and if they ever called here again I'd be reporting them to the FTC and FCC. That shut them up.

The most annoying calls I got were for the people who lived at this address two owners before us. Apparently the collections agencies looked up the current phone number for their old address and thought we would know where they were. It took 6 or 7 months for those calls to stop.

[DebbieJ]

It is perfectly legal for them to call you to try to reach your family members, but they are not allowed to tell you why they are calling.

Research the Fair Debt Collection Act.

[s7714]

For a while we were getting them all.the.time. thanks to my BIL. My response was always that we haven't talked to him in years, and have no plans to do so in the future. Don't even know how to contact him. :innocent: I chewed DH out about it, so he in turn finally stepped up and chewed his brother out about it. Thankfully BIL started getting his delinquencies taken care of.

We also went through the previous owner owed money thing. The creditors were calling every single day until finally I went ballistic and verbally ripped the person a new one. Used some language that only leaves my mouth about once in a decade. Funny enough they stopped calling after that.

Every once in a while we also get a string of calls where you know they're just going down the yellow pages list of last name ____ looking for people who might know of or be related to a person that owes money. They'll call and ask for the person 4 or 5 times before they'll stop despite the fact we tell them the person doesn't live there and we don't know them.

All of it's highly annoying. That's partly why I don't answer my phone unless I recognize the caller ID info.

[frgsnlzrds]

I think it's called the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act.

Thanks for that! It's pretty interesting.

Any debt collector communicating with any person other
than the consumer for the purpose of acquiring location infor-
mation about the consumer shall—
(1) identify himself, state that he is confirming or correct-
ing location information concerning the consumer, and,
only if expressly requested, identify his employer;
(2) not state that such consumer owes any debt;
(3) not communicate with any such person more than once
unless requested to do so by such person or unless
the debt collector reasonably believes that the earlier
response of such person is erroneous or incomplete and
that such person now has correct or complete location
information

Except as provided in section 804, without the prior consent of the
consumer given directly to the debt collector, or the ex-
press permission of a court of competent jurisdiction, or as
reasonably necessary to effectuate a postjudgment judicial
remedy, a debt collector may not communicate, in connec-
tion with the collection of any debt, with any person other
than a consumer, his attorney, a consumer reporting agency
if otherwise permitted by law, the creditor, the attorney of
the creditor, or the attorney of the debt collector.

For the purpose of this section, the term “consumer” in-
cludes the consumer’s spouse, parent (if the consumer is a
minor), guardian, executor, or administrator.