Stop Bill Collectors! » Stopping harassment

Cease and Desist Letter: Vital Information Often Overlooked by Debtors

Janice — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:56:23 +0000

Thinking of writing a cease and desist letter to your creditors? (See this article for a sample cease and desist letter). It’s not as simple as writing a letter to your creditor telling them to stop calling you. Here are 5 vital facts you need to know before you send the cease and desist letter to stop creditors from hassling you.

Cease and Desist Letters Can’t be Sent to Original Creditors. Cease and desist letters only apply to third party collection agencies. That means if Sallie Mae is calling you about your student loan every week, Bank of America is calling you every day about your overdue mortgage, or Citibank is calling you ten times a day about your overdue account, there’s exactly nothing you can do about it. You’ll have to wait until the original creditor turns your account over to a collection agency (usually in about six months).
You must send the cease and desist letter by certified mail. Otherwise, the credit collections agency will keep calling you, and deny that they ever got your letter. They are trained to ignore non-certified cease and desist letters, so make sure you beat them at their own game.
Don’t give the agency an excuse to say they couldn’t match the letter with an account. Include the current date, your name, address, phone number(s) where the agency has been calling you, and your account number. If you don’t have your account number, make sure to include your full name and date of birth.
Never put your social security number on a cease and desist letter, even if you don’t know your account name. Chances are, the collection agency doesn’t have your social security, and you do not want them to have it. If the agency gets hold of your social security number, they can use it to locate all of your assets, including bank accounts, property, and cars.
Keep a copy of your letter. If you don’t, you have no record of what you sent the agency to show in court (should you decide to sue them at a later date for FDCPA violations). The agency could claim you send a check, or another item in that certified letter. That’s another good reason to date your letter!

The Simplest Way to Stop Creditors From Calling You

Janice — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:03:54 +0000

If you want to stop creditors from calling, you’re going to have to pick up the phone and talk to them. That may seem counterintuitive (why the heck would you want to talk to them?), but you–like them–are going to follow a script that’s guaranteed to have them stop calling you. Peace is just a few phone calls away.

Why You Have to Answer the Phone

If you are being harassed by collection agencies, you’re not going to know who they are unless you talk to them. That debt you once owed Citicard, or Bank of America, or Discover, has long since been sold to a collections agency. That’s right: sold. Don’t be fooled into thinking that when you are sending money to a credit collections company that you are paying off your original debt. You’re paying someone else, who purchased that debt (from someone else) for pennies. And you’ll have no idea who that company is (or where, exactly, that company is located) until you talk to them.

Five Easy Steps to Stop Creditors From Calling You

Step 1: Turn your ringer on and pick up the phone. Follow this script exactly (once you have verified it’s a collections call).
“I’d like to send you something in the mail. May I have your address?” Don’t let them enter you into a conversation. Don’t let them pin you down to an amount, a payment schedule, or anything else. If they don’t give you the information, ask to speak to a supervisor. The collections agent won’t want to refer a customer who is offering to “send something in the mail” to a supervisor.
Step 2: Write down the address. Say “You will have something within the week” and hang up.
Step 3: If the same agency calls back (they might), tell them you just sent them something. And hang up again.
Step 4: In the meantime, send them a cease and desist letter.
Step 5: Repeat the above steps (1 through 4) as many times as necessary. Sure, it will be the week from hell, but you’ll have a list of names of creditors to send those cease and desist letters to. That cease and desist notice serves as a legal way to stop creditors from calling you for the price of a postage stamp (and a couple of bucks extra at the post office).

Got Bill Collector Calls? Don’t Fall for This Despicable Trick!

Janice — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:43:36 +0000

The Dallas Observer recently posted an article about a new trick that debt collectors use to squeeze money out of you. And it isn’t what you would expect. Instead of using threats of jail, bad credit, and calling your relatives to tell them you’re a “deadbeat,” bill collectors have undergone special training to collect debt any way they possibly can. That includes this unforgivable ruse that will have your parents and grandparents cheated out of their life savings–if you fall for it.

Setting the Trap

In the article, Roger Weiss, co-owner of the debt collection agency CACI states that when debtors have “double-digit people” calling them, they are more likely to give money to “nice” debt collectors who are willing to listen to your problems. That’s right: debt collection agencies are switching tactics. But don’t be fooled by this sheep in wolf’s clothing: after luring you into their trap, the debt collection agency will try and convince you it’s a good idea to talk to your parents or grandparents and getting them to take out a reverse mortgage (that’s where they effectively sell their house back to the bank and rent it off of them until they die) or taking a loan against their life insurance policies. Yes, debt collection agencies would stoop that low as to want your parents or grandparents to lose their home and life savings you pay off your credit card debt.

Your $10,000 Debt only Cost Them $500

Remember: that credit collection agency purchased your Citibank or Bank of America credit card debt for about 5 cents on the dollar. It’s no longer about you paying your original debt: it’s about you lining the debt collection agencies pockets with commissions.

Send a Cease and Desist Letter

As always, my advice is firm: talk to the debt collection agency once to get their address. Then send them a cease and desist letter.

How to Stop GC Services Dead in Their Tracks

Janice — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:57:05 +0000

GC Limited Partnership is a notorious bill collection company that provides debt collection services to other companies. Using call centers and outsourcings that have been a target for consumer complaints, GC Services has gained a reputation for unfair and illegal debt collection tactics. They have been investigated by the Better Business Bureau for their predatory practices.

Complaints About GC Services

Consumer complaints about GC services litter the web. They include:

Hang up phone calls.
Unauthorized debiting of bank accounts and/or processing unauthorized checks.
Harassing calls to friends and relatives, including one case where a neighbor was asked to write a note and leave GCs phone number on a neighbor’s door (the neighbor owed the debt, not the person who was called!)
Illegally calling from different numbers and identifying themselves as “Superior Court”.
A myriad of other unfair practices.

Thankfully, there are several ways you can stop GCs harassing calls. The Fair Credit Collection Act states that bill collectors have to abide by certain rules, but companies like GC services ignore the laws, betting that the consumer either won’t have the financial resources or knowledge to know how to stop the harassment. In order to stop them in their tracks, you need to take three steps:

Contact the credit bureaus with “updated” information to throw GC off the scent. This technique works 75% of the time. See this article on how to “update” your credit bureau information.
Follow the instructions in this article to send bill collections notices to a mail drop. GC services will think you’ve moved, and send their mailings to the drop box–where they will be shredded.
Get a second phone. Keep the original number, but leave the ringer off. That way, GC services will think you’re receiving their calls. This article tells you how to do it.

The above three steps will work 100% of the time. No more phone calls to neighbors and friends. No more letters in the mail. Can you imagine?

Change Your Information and Update Your Credit Report

Janice — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:55:54 +0000

Missed payments, delayed payments, and inability to pay: these are some of the reasons why creditors make harassing calls. They are able to get a lot of information about you and you probably don’t know how. You might be wondering how they can retrieve the majority, if not all, of your personal information: the answer is that they can legally pull a copy of your credit report and use that information against you.

If you don’t want to be bothered by these obnoxious creditors, you can legally change your information such as your telephone number, address, and other contact numbers so that these creditors won’t be able to reach you. This is 75% likely to give you freedom from your rude creditors after a few weeks. Calls from these creditors are stressful because they call anytime of the day or even late at night. If they have the incorrect information (which you are about to sneakily give them) your creditors won’t be able to harass you if you made late payments or if you have missed payments.

Change your information by updating your credit report.

Remember: you are smarter than the average debt collector! Since creditors are retrieving your personal information through your credit report, it would only make sense if you update the personal information on your credit report to mislead your debt collectors. Once your credit report has been successfully updated and the creditors are able to gather this new information, they will not be able to reach you anymore. There will be no more harassment calls from rude creditors and you will be able to sleep peacefully at night.

Doing this takes three identical letters. “Dear Sir, I have changed my address to 1987 Main Street, Anytown, USA. Please update your records.” sign it, and include your Date of Birth and Social Security Number. Send one to each of the following addresses (a letter is best, they don’t accept personal information changes over the phone or on their website):

Equifax, P.O. Box 740256, Atlanta, GA 30374
Experian, PO Box 2002, Allen, TX 75013

TransUnion LLC, P.O. Box 2000, Chester, PA 19022

What address to use? It doesn’t matter. It isn’t against the law to give credit bureaus misleading information, and the only people using that new address will be bill collectors…the regular companies you deal with don’t pull address information from credit reports.

For a more permanent way to stop bill collectors from contacting you, see this article on forwarding your mail to an online service who will shred the collections notices for you.

How to Stop Bill Collector Calls with the Ol’Switcheroo

matthew — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 13:23:20 +0000

Ah, nothing like the good ole’ switch-a-roo to stop bill collector calls! I mentioned in a previous article that the best way to stop creditors is to get a prepaid cell phone (read this article to find out why prepaid cell phones will stop bill collector calls dead). This method, the good ole’ switch-a-roo, will cost you only a few bucks a month (isn’t that worth it for peace and quiet?).

If you are like me, then you have had debt collectors calling your house 3, 4, even 5 times per day (and sometimes not within the legal times). For a while, I was used to it. I just wouldn’t answer the phone and let it ring. The ringing became second-nature to me and I learned to phase it out as background noise. But then, things changed.

The day came that I was to have a few guests over for a cocktail party. Sadly, I completely forgot about the debt collectors, and soon enough guests were asking me who was calling so much and why the phone wouldn’t stop ringing. Embarrassed, and not wanting to say they were bill collector calls, I stumbled over my words to make up excuses. The night went well, but I vowed to never let a debt collector ruin my good time again. It was time to put an end to the calls once and for all!

The Stop Bill Collector Calls Switcheroo

I went out and bought a prepaid cell phone from T-Mobile. The nice thing about prepaid phones is that you can “top up” your account at any time, allowing you to pay as you go in regards to minute usage. No contracts to sign, no hassles to deal with. I put $50 on my cell phone and immediately started giving out my cell phone as my home phone. As far as I was aware, my cell phone was the only phone that I had.

I changed my phone number with every person and company that was important to me: my work, my relatives, my nuclear family, and girlfriend, among others. Basically, you want to make sure that you give your cellphone out to people who are guaranteed not to share it with anyone else. Also, make sure to tell each person that you give your number to that they should always call you and ask your permission to give your number out to others. This way, if a bill collector calls your neighbors or relatives (a common but illegal tactic), they know to keep your number private.

Remember that you can still give your real home phone number out to people who you don’t want to lie to but still don’t want to talk to, such as bad first dates or other bill collection agencies. When a friend or relative calls you at home, tell them you’ll call them back on the land line (to save cell phone charges).

And for the grand finale: turn off your phone ringer! Finally, no more calls from collectors and telemarketers. No more calls from unimportant people. And best of all, no more annoying ringing in the house. However, the bill collectors will still think they have the right phone number, so they won’t go looking for another way to contact you.

The freedom I felt was amazing. I could have cocktail parties and dinners with guests without having to worry about the phone ringing off the hook or hearing a telephone ring in my sleep.

I promise you that this is one of the most relieving feelings that you will ever have if you struggle with debt collectors who call you.

The next step: Making the bill collectors think you live somewhere else.

Gotta Love That Cease and Desist Letter!

matthew — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:18:19 +0000

The Cease and Desist letter, otherwise known as the C&D, is quite possibly the most powerful tool available in your arsenal of tactics against debt collectors. It is one of the most simple ideas yet, it throws a collector in a heap of legal bondage that guarantees they will never contact you again.

What is a Cease and Desist Letter?

If you don’t know what a cease and desist letter is, then you don’t realize the huge amount of power that has been bestowed upon you by the federal government in regards to your debt. This power not only protects you from being harassed, but it also gives you a medium in which to bring about a harassment lawsuit.

However, the C&D letter remains the utmost of importance with respect to tools. The C&D is a letter from you that states that a collection company must immediately “cease and desist” what they are doing; whether it is harassment, phone calls, or other unwanted behavior.

Cease and Desist Letters Stop Bill Collectors From Calling You

The best part is that if you send your debt collector(s) a C&D, they are legally barred from having any further contact with you. The only circumstance in which they may contact you after the C&D letter has been issued is if they are telling you that no further contact will be initiated or the credit company is planning on brining a lawsuit against you. Other than that, it is illegal and considered harassment if they call you again.

What to Do if a Debt Collector Ignores the Cease and Desist

If they do contact you again to collect money after you have served them with a C&D, then you should immediately report them to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC; www.ftc.gov). Then, follow the advice in this article on how to sue a debt collector the easy way and win.

The Power of a Cease and Desist Letter

Your debt will not go away until you either pay it, declare bankruptcy, or wait until the Statute of Limitations has expired on your debt. However, if you happen to win a lawsuit against your collector, you can use that money to pay off a good portion of your debts. You may be rewarded up to $1000 per infraction (an infraction would be a single phone call from a debt collector or a single letter), plus court and attorney fees.
Do not underestimate the power of a C&D letter. Taking five to write it may save you a lot of time, energy, and emotional stress. Plus, it might even get you some free money! Can’t beat that now can you?

The Free and Easy Way to Stop Bill Collectors’ Harassment

matthew — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:01:52 +0000

If you’re wondering how to stop bill collectors, you could try moving. Not by moving to a different house, but just making it look like you moved, by changing your address. Here’s how to get bill collectors chasing their tails with a fake address.

How to stop bill collectors in their tracks!

In the time it takes to fill out a postcard, you can have debt collectors chasing their tails. Changing your address doesn’t have to be all that difficult.

Inform Your “Whitelist”

Your “whitelist” is is the list of people you want to get mail from: your family, your friends, or your job. Chances are, your friends and family use E-mail for everything, but let them know that you’re having trouble with your post office that prevents you from getting mail. If they want to send you something, they need to do it either in person, or via UPS.

Change your Address

Head on down to the post office and fill out a change-of-address form. You can also do it online at
the USPS Change of Address Website.
Your best bet is to pick an address in another state that belongs to a large business or corporation. Your mail will be delivered to [your name], XYZ Company, Another State. The mail will arrive in the mailroom and may sit in a lost pile or they may and try to send it back to you. However, the most important thing is that in USPS’s eyes: you’ve moved and your mail is being forwarded.

Freedom from Bill Collectors

All of the mail that your creditors and bill collectors send you will be automatically re-routed within the post office to your “new address.” Once your mail is routed to the new address, the post office will send your debt collectors your “new” address if the item has Change Service Requested. You’ll often see this on letters from debt collectors: they will want to track you when you move. The debt collectors will receive the notice of address change and will start looking for you in another state.

Update Your Credit Report

Send a letter to the big three credit bureaus with your new change of address. Your creditors will pull the report, hoping to find you, and they’ll see that you’ve moved to another state. They’ll concentrate their efforts to find you there, leaving you in relative peace.

Equifax	Experian	TransUnion
P.O. Box 740241 Atlanta, GA 30374 1-800-685-1111	P.O. Box 2002 Allen, TX 75013 1 888 397 3742	P.O. Box 1000 Chester, PA 19022 1-800-888-4213

One final note: The drawback of this method is that you can’t receive mail at your home anymore. If you’re worried about losing that one piece of important mail (like a forgotten check), check out this article on stopping collections letters by “disguising” your address without getting rid of it.

How to Get Rid of Collections Notices in the Mail

Janice — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:49:37 +0000

I found out there are ways that I could mislead my creditors. I decided to beat them at their own game and give creditors personal information that is different from my own so that they wouldn’t be able to locate me and communicate with me. The first step was to change the creditor’s access to my personal information, starting with my mailing address. No, I don’t have to move, I just had to make them think I moved.

I temporarily signed up with Earth Class Mail , to make it look to my creditors like I moved to California ( Earth Class Mail allows you to have an online post office box with a real street address in another state, so you can make your creditors think that you live in New York, California, or Washington!).

An hour after signing up with Earth Class Mail , I sent letters to the three major credit bureaus, telling them (the good citizen that I am!) that I had moved to a new address–just in case bill collectors wanted to contact me at my new bogus address.

Here are the addresses for the major credit bureaus…you’ll need to send a letter by mail as they won’t change your address over the phone.

Equifax	Experian	TransUnion
P.O. Box 740241 Atlanta, GA 30374 1-800-685-1111	P.O. Box 2002 Allen, TX 75013 1 888 397 3742	P.O. Box 1000 Chester, PA 19022 1-800-888-4213