Always question the information that the collector has been given. Often the information is incorrect and of course the collector isn't going to wonder about the verasity of the biller who is paying them for there services. The onus is on you and you have to prove that you don't owe anything. How come they aren't questioned!

Stop whining! Pay for the things you bought with the money you "borrowed" from creditors. If someone owed you money, you want it back!

You can't get whatever you want and then cry because you have to pay for it later! Not paying for stuff is called STEALING!

The ONLY exception is when someone incurs debt as the result of medical expenses. That is something that is beyond their control.

I too have been harrassed. There was a time that my husband was attending school full time and had a full time job, this puts anybody behind. This one company called, I told her that I would pay what I owed, I had to make payments. She insisted that I take out a loan to pay the monies in full. When I told her I could not, she said that I was a piece of trash that did not want to pay her bills. I lived in Wisconsin at the time. I retained an attorney, they took all my bills, went to court and appointed a trustee. If any collectors called they were in contempt of court and they would have been fined. I paid my debt off without any more confrontations from anyone.

To those who work in the collection industry; while in undergrad my main source of income was from collecting returned accounts from businesses...couple of things i have learned; most of the industry does not practice responsible collection procedures, there may be company wide SOPs that illustrate proper collection procedures but those are never practiced and rarely enforced. These companies are money making machines, if a $1500 defaulted debt has been bought by a company for .25 cent and a debtor pays only one hundred dollars on this debt, that company has made a tremendous profit. And when you pay your employees little over minimum wage plus a commission and or bonus that is probably contigent on unreasonable goals you add the two together and you get what has been presented here today. Also, those who say that debtors need to be held responsible for their debt, I don't think that responsiblity should be held in hands of a 9-5 collector or in my case a twenty year old undergrad who is trying to make as much money as possible. Most of these defaulted debts have been covered by insurance companies anyway...i mean the things i saw, collecting after 9:00, collecting on old debts that statues of limitations had ran out on and then marking the debt as new on a debtors credit report, calling more than once a day, calling and harrassing at debtors jobs...it is not by chance that this industry has exploded in recent years...i think we should be more concered about protecting those who owe and not the collectors...

I too was falsely accused - I was assigned a phone number by the phone company, but it had an uncollected debt associated with it. I was called by a debt collector in California who insulted me, swore at me, and harassed me. Even though I could prove I did not have the phone at that time, it did nothing. The attorney general of my state contacted the atrorney general of California and all was resolved. If this is happening to you, contact your state's attorney general's office. They are there to help - and thank goodness they are!

I've been there too. My debts were my own fault, I was irresponsible, and i recognize that. But many of the agencies acted reprehensibly. It was many years ago, before the internet and news programs really worked on educating consumers of their rights. Even though I was an adult, my father was called more than once and given details about my debts (completely illegal). The biggest thing was I didn't know where to turn to report such violations. I've since resolved my issues, but I'm glad I know my rights in case I ever face identity theft issues.

This is so sad I work at a collection agency for 15 years!!Never have we been sued!! My staff is not a bunch of losers as you are all talking about! My agency waived 18,000,000.00 in actual dollars for charity, katrina relif, war veterns and other over the last 5 years. We care about the people we collect from, this christmas alone we had over 100 debtors send us christmas cards thanking us for helping them out of their financial hardship by explaining and helping!!!
So when you all have services at hospitals, Doctors offices remember by not paying them you are keeping food out of the people you needed the help from in the first palce!!!!!

When my husband and I were eighteen we ran up almost fifteen thousand dollars in debt. Instead of filing for bankruptcy as many of our friends do at that age we have spent the last ten years slowly paying it off. I do remember phone calls from creditors that ended with me crying, phone calls at all hours of the day and night, and the fear that I had just to answer the phone. What was worse is we were paying them all off, just not as they wanted. We are down to only one account that is still in collections. It is from 1997 and we only just started receiving collections on it ten years later! I had to do some serious searching to even find an old bill stating it was an account of ours because we didn't remember it and it has never shown on our credit report. This creditor demanded full payment and refused to do a payment plan. I now just ignore the phone calls and the letters in the mail. I do understand that these debts are my problem and that I made the mistake, that is why I paid them all and did not file for bankruptcy but the collection agencies are not willing to work with people. Why would they refuse a payment plan seven months ago of $100 dollars a month which would have paid the debt by now instead of harrassing me for seven months and getting nothing?

I keep getting calls from debt collectors for people who have had my phone number previously. I have had my number changed twice, but I just get someone else. The callers refuse to identify who they work for and insist that I am covering for the person they are looking for. How do I stop this?

As a business owner, it is amazing how many people try to avoid paying any bills they may have created. Some people will claim to have a shortage of funds and are not able to pay off any of their bill...yet these same people routinely spend between $5-$10 per day on cigarettes. Over the course of a month, this adds up to $150-$300 / month. Apply this amount towards your debts and you can get rid of the bill collectors calling you. Granted this is not everyone, but it is a disturbing trend that I am noticing.

I also disagree to the poster who feels the only exception to paying your bills are when a medical condition occurs as it is outside of your control. Ultimately are clinics and hospitals not businesses? Are the employees of these facilities not entitled to their earned wages..and do the clinics responsible for their own bills (electric, water, liability insurance etc...)? The answer is YES and therefore even your bills to medical clinics should not be blown off. If services were rendered and billed appropriately than you should be responsible for paying whatever is your legal obligation.

I had a debt collector set me up on a payment plan some years ago, only to get a threatening phone call 3 days later (after I'd already sent them $350,) stating that if I didn't pay the balance in full, I would be prosecuted. I had to go over MANY heads to get this straightened out.
According to Anderson (stated above); "A debt collector is not the enemy of the consumer. His or her job is to help find a solution and help the person figure out a way to pay the debt." My response (considering my experience); "SuuuUUUuuuUUUre." *note sarcasm*

You can file a written demand that the phone calls stop and they have to leave you alone.

If you think there is no debtor's prison in this country, you have not been paying attention. In December of 2006, the United States Supreme Court ruled in the Lee v. Spellings case that the various collection arms of the United States Government have the right to administratively take a person's social security benefits which are over the first $750. a month, no matter whether the person filed to have old school loans discharged or not because the person has become 100% permanently disabled.
With Social Security increasing at maybe 4% a year, and interest being added onto the old school loans at as high as 18%, it places the 100% permanently disabled person into a financial debtor's prison for the remainder of their life from which they can never escape. Do you want to know what the collection agent supervisor said to my attorney when asked when they were going to grant the administrative discharge due to documented 100% permanent disability (after they had signed for and received the 5th set of medical documentation and request forms)? The collection agent supervisor said, "We don't have to approve it. We are the United States Government!" And you know what? The CFR states that once a collection agent supervisor has made a determination, there is no appeal allowed.

My brother-in-law put our number down and we are being hounded by the Rent-To-Own people when he (brother-in-law) falls behind in his payments. We've told them that we do not have his phone number and to stop calling but they continue calling every day until they get some type of payment from him.

I am so tired of Pentagroup Financial LLC (Houston, TX) calling me in regards to my deadbeat ex-husband who I divorced 12 years ago. He has never lived where I live, and he has never been associated with my current phone number. I have told them 3 times to STOP calling me, I do not know where he is. They don't listen. Every two month...message on my answering machine because they use Skip Trace.

Unfortunately our country hasn't learned from past mistakes and continues to thrive on debt. Credit card companies and collectors, reputable or otherwise, wouldn't exist if we would all learn to live within our means. Collectors are a symptom of the disease but the cause of the disease is our own fault.

DONT WANT THE DEBT COLLECTOR TO CALL???????? PAY YOUR BILLS!!!!

If people would just live within their means and not live paycheck to paycheck and on their credit cards you wouldn't see so many of these stories. My ex-husband and his family were and are the worst about this. They spend every dime in their paychecks and then continue to spend on their credit cards. Some months, they have to skip paying one batch of bills to pay the other. This used to drive me insane! He would hide bills because it was his way of making them disappear -- if he doesn't see it, it doesn't exist. We need to bring back the proper punishments for deadbeats like this. People need to learn to plan for what they need and pay cash instead of using credit. When you do use credit, pay your bills don't pass the buck. No pun intended.

I had the same issue with a loan on my vehicle. I had a bad couple of months, missed one payment and was close to the next month's payment due date. I had been working with someone at my loan company and she was very nice, trying to work with me. Next thing I know, another lady calls and was VERY rude, demanding, and threatening. I told her I had just received some money and she demanded I tell her where I was getting the money from for the payment she demanded that very day. I told her it was none of her business where I got the money (besides my place of employment), but she insisted it was her right. She then threatend me by saying that if she had to pull my file the next day for non-payment, "you will regret it." I asked her if she was threatening me, and she said yes! I thank the god(s) I had received that check or I might have lost my vehicle. I have never been so upset in my life.