In the state of Texas, business solicitation calls can not be placed before 8 am or after 8 pm your time. That means that if a collection agency calls you before or after those hours, its harassment. You have the legal right to hang up under this condition.
Another common ploy they use in harassment is to threaten you. This is very serious harassment. These are some of the types of verbal threats they may use against you: saying that they will send out a police officer, or telling you they will freeze your accounts. Any statement that they make like this has to be lawful and they have to really intend to take action. If you receive this treatment you should check the federal and state laws to see if they can make the threat good.
The government is the only "person" able to freeze your accounts. Don't believe a collector when he tells you he can do this. They may claim to be a lawyer and they better be one if they say they are. Otherwise, the collector has violated a federal law. They use this tactic because it sounds very serious and will intimidate a lot of debtors. Don't let them intimidate you into forfeiting your right to being treated correctly under the law. Do learn about your rights.
They would have to have filed a warrant and have a court order to bring you in from your home, which is usually not an option for them to exercise.
The most basic way to stop harassment is to place a privacy manager on your phone. If anyone with an 800 number or other specific identity you don't want calling you calls, then you can set it to make them go through a recorded announcement before they reach you. You can also use caller ID to help screen your calls.
If you want to find more legal options for yourself, you can contact a lawyer in your area or look up the information on the internet. The first law to look for is The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. You may have the grounds for a lawsuit.
Before the collector can try to collect the debt, he must state that it's an attempt to collect a debt and any information attained will be used for that purpose. He also has to tell you that the call may be recorded.
You can record the collection calls too. Recording the calls is a good measure to take to protect yourself in case the collector is verbally abusive, such as screaming at you, or cursing you. If you do want to record them then you have to tell them you're recording the conversation so it will be admissible evidence of harassment in court.
Learn the federal and state laws concerning the collection of debts laws. That way you know what the collectors can legally do when attempting to collect a debt.
- The amount of the debt. Hiring collection agencies mean extra costs by way of fees. It also means the amount to be recovered from the debt will be discounted as these agencies normally demand a certain percentage of the recovered amount on top of their hiring fee. It may be more cost-efficient for the company to just write off the outstanding debts in light of the extra costs of hiring an agency in the long run.
- Location of the debtors and collection agency. The location of the debtors must also be taken into consideration. If the bulk of the debtors are headquartered locally, then it is more efficient to hire local collection agencies. If the debtors hold office out of state, then an agency local to those debtors or a nationwide agency is more appropriate. It is important to note that agencies local to hiring company are most likely cheaper than out of state or nationwide agencies.
- The company's relationship with its customers. How well does the company know its customers? Customers with previously immaculate payment histories may have valid reasons for defaulting on their debts such as death, divorce, temporary unemployment or disability. In these cases, hiring a collection agency may facilitate the eventual settlement of the debts but could also alienate them and hurt the business in the future. The company must be able to provide solutions to customers with valid reasons for defaulting on their loans such as payment arrangements through a department other than the collections arm that will not only ensure the debt is eventually collected and the relationship between the company and customer preserved.
- Company responsibility. Companies should strive to improve their billing and accounting methods to protect themselves from bad debts. Certain companies incur bad debts due to negligence such as hospitals forgetting to bill the insurance or HMO companies of their patients. Individuals and companies will try to conceal their bad credit histories and companies must develop and establish company processes that will enable them to see through machinations of concealment and deceit. They must conduct sufficient background checks on the people and companies they extend credit to. If they extend credit to companies or individuals with bad credit histories, the possibility of that credit turning into a bad debt increases several folds.
Hiring a third party to collect debts may seem convenient at first but like all other business decisions, it is a decision that must be carefully evaluated on its short and long term effects on the company and its customers.
Tristan Andrews has sinced written about articles on various topics from Pets, Education and Collection Agencies. Tristan Andrews is a freelance author who writes articles about and. Tristan Andrews's top article generates over 673000 views. to your Favourites.