Bill Collectors & Calls to Your Job

[dj88qc]

Hello All,

My question is what is the US law when a bill collector calls a persons place of employment several times a day. Are they allowed to do that? Is the person being chased by the creditor by law able to say do not call my job; call me at home? I’m curious. There is a girl at work hasseled on a daily basis and I have to answer the call and transfer it to her. I am getting tired of it. She asks me to say she is not there and I am tired of the lying and it really interfers with my job. So if anyone has any insight it would be helpful for me and for my co-worker.

Thanks.

[pilot141]

Well, I had the same situation (cough) 14 (cough) years ago with a buddy of mine in pilot training. Some creditor kept calling the flight room; whoever answered always said that Lt (Incognito) was up flying and couldn’t come to the phone. The calls eventually stopped, but I don’t know if he finally paid his bills or if something else happened.

I guess I’m contributing absolutely nothing here, because I have no idea about the legality of doing the calls. My first guess is that the collection agencies are initially allowed to pursue any means available to contact the debtor. Once they establish contact, they might be forced to stop if the debtor insists.

Once again, this is pure guesswork on my part. I’m sure some folks who know about this will be along shortly.

[MannyL]

@dj88qc

Hello All,

My question is what is the US law when a bill collector calls a persons place of employment several times a day. Are they allowed to do that? Is the person being chased by the creditor by law able to say do not call my job; call me at home? I’m curious. There is a girl at work hasseled on a daily basis and I have to answer the call and transfer it to her. I am getting tired of it. She asks me to say she is not there and I am tired of the lying and it really interfers with my job. So if anyone has any insight it would be helpful for me and for my co-worker.

Thanks.

By law and if you want a Cite I will find one when I get back from Florida if you tell a bill collector to no longer call you at a number they have to by law stop calling you.

[Papermache_Prince]

The Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act can be found here, although I don’t see anything specific about calling an employer. You may want to check your state’s laws, through the Attorney General’s Office, Department of Consumer Protection, or similar government agency. For example, Massachusett’s law

The state Consumer Protection Act prohibits some debt collection practices. (M.G.L. c. 93A, §2©, 940 CMR 7.00) When dealing directly with you, creditors and collection agencies may not:
* Call you more than twice for each debt in each 7 day period at home, or call you more than twice for each debt in each 30 day period at someplace other than your home.
* Call you at work if you requested that they not call. Your oral request is valid for only 10 days, unless you confirm it in writing within 7 days of making the request. Written request are valid until you write to the collector removing the restriction.

[Lsura]

Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act:

(a) COMMUNICATION WITH THE CONSUMER GENERALLY. Without the prior consent of the consumer given directly to the debt collector or the express permission of a court of competent jurisdiction, a debt collector may not communicate with a consumer in connection with the collection of any debt –

<snip>

(3) at the consumer’s place of employment if the debt collector knows or has reason to know that the consumer’s employer prohibits the consumer from receiving such communication.

There’s also this, a little further down:

© CEASING COMMUNICATION. If a consumer notifies a debt collector in writing that the consumer refuses to pay a debt or that the consumer wishes the debt collector to cease further communication with the consumer, the debt collector shall not communicate further with the consumer with respect to such debt, except –

(1) to advise the consumer that the debt collector’s further efforts are being terminated;

(2) to notify the consumer that the debt collector or creditor may invoke specified remedies which are ordinarily invoked by such debt collector or creditor; or

(3) where applicable, to notify the consumer that the debt collector or creditor intends to invoke a specified remedy.

If such notice from the consumer is made by mail, notification shall be complete upon receipt.

.

Basically, she needs to tell them not to contact her at work, although back when I was doing collections, if the person who answered the phone told us that the debtor could not take personal phone calls at work, we would no longer try to contact them at work.

[Tim_T-Bonham.net]

@dj88qc

There is a girl at work hasseled on a daily basis and I have to answer the call and transfer it to her. I am getting tired of it. She asks me to say she is not there and I am tired of the lying and it really interfers with my job.

So don’t lie! Instead, ask them “Is this call related to purchasing of widgets (or whatever your business is)” and when they say no, refuse to put them through to her. Tell them this is a business phone, intended for use in selling widgets.

[Horatio_Hellpop]

Generally, they don’t call the office unless they’ve tried mailing and phoning your home with no response. Still, if they call the office for someone else and you take the call, you’re under no obligation to be helpful to them. Consider it an opportunity for creative non-cooperation! One collector was dunning a co-worker of mine, a Vietnamese lady, and I told him “That name dosn’t ring a bell. Vietnamese, right? Most Vietnamese have a different name they use with Americans. You wouldn’t happen to know this person’s other name, would you?” The collector never called back again.