Debt collectors can be persistent and aggressive, especially if you owe money. If you find yourself constantly on the phone with your debt collector, it might be time to take action. Here are some steps to take if a debt collector is harassing you:
Know Your Rights
It’s important to know your rights, saysNathan Deladurantey. If you are being harassed by a debt collector, you can dispute the debt and request validation of it. You also have the right to know how much you owe, who you owe and why they think that number is accurate.
If a debt collector calls or emails without following these steps or making legal demands on you first (which we’ll get into later), don’t give them any information about yourself at all! They are not allowed by law to contact anyone other than the person who owes money unless given permission from them directly or through their attorney if needed..
Understand What ADebt Collector Can And Can’t Do
A debt collector can’t harass you. That means they’re not allowed to call you at all hours of the night, on holidays or weekends, or at work if it’s been made clear that this is a problem for you.
A debt collector can’t threaten you with violence or harm if you don’t pay off your debts–and if someone does threaten violence against them, they should report it immediately, according to Nathan Deladurantey!
Debt collectors also aren’t allowed to lie about what they intend to do with information about your finances (they may ask for personal details like bank accounts) or how much money they think that paying off one loan will help another one become affordable again–these are both tactics used by scammers who try tricking people into giving away payment information over the phone so they can steal money from their accounts later down the road when no one notices what happened until too late (which could result in losing everything).
Check Your Credit Report And Dispute Mistakes
If you’re being harassed by a debt collector, check your credit report. You can get a free copy of each of your three credit reports once every 12 months from AnnualCredit Report.
If there’s something on your report that’s inaccurate and could be hurting your ability to get new loans or insurance policies (or even just lower interest rates), try disputing it with the relevant bureaus. If enough people dispute an error in their favor–and if there’s no proof that it isn’t true–the bureau will have no choice but to remove it from their system after 60 days (or sooner).
Gather Evidence To Support Your Claim
Now that you know what to do if a debt collector contacts you, it’s time to figure out what to do if they are harassing. The first step is to gather evidence of the harassment. Here are some things that will help with this:
- Keep a record of all calls from debt collectors and any correspondence from them, including letters and emails. This can be done by keeping logbooks or simply saving all correspondence in an email folder on your computer or mobile device. You may also want to record conversations with them so that there is no confusion about what was said during those conversations later on down the road–especially if there were threats made against you by the collector!
