Who can they call, what can they say?

[Conna]

Can anybody tell me about CCs calling family and workplace etc?

How do they get family and work information?

What can they say?

What is the best way to ensure they do NOT make any calls to family, friends etc?

Thanks!

[JRScott]

So long as they can reach you they will not call family or work in most cases.

They can get the info generally from whatever you used to fill out your credit applications, references, work etc.

They can also sometimes get info from a credit report if you lived with your parents etc at some point.

The best way is to get an answering machine. Leave a clear concise message so that they know they have reached you. Then about once a month call them back once and just touch base. Nope can't send any money still unemployed etc.

[WoodSprite]

Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

Can anybody tell me about CCs calling family and workplace etc?

How do they get family and work information?

What can they say?

What is the best way to ensure they do NOT make any calls to family, friends etc?

They can be pretty ingenious at rooting out information. We don't HAVE a phone - only a web-based voicemail system. I have no family, and at the time was I self-employed. Still, they actually managed to find my former landlady and ask her how to reach me. She's a good friend and a saint, by the way: she had no idea we were having financial trouble, but she wouldn't even acknowledge to them that she knew me.

Anyway, there's a general overview of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act on Wikipedia at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_De..._Practices_Act, which includes a list of prohibited conduct. We should probably all be familiar with these provisions.

JRScott's given you great advice above. I didn't know to do any of this, which is probably the reason they kept digging.

[Conna]

The caller ID always says the number but the name is a state name. The message they leave is always a recording saying to call them.

How proactive should I be with the lenders to keep them from calling family?

[JRScott]

Once a month should be enough in returning calls.

[epiphany]

The caller ID always says the number but the name is a state name. The message they leave is always a recording saying to call them.

How proactive should I be with the lenders to keep them from calling family?

In my own experience, collection agencies would start calling elsewhere (relatives, work) after about a week if they had not heard from me.

I started returning phone calls within a few days to avoid this. I told them I was filing and most left me alone after that. A few accounts got transferred back to the original creditor and then farmed out to another collection agency and the cycle would repeat itself.

ep