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Just spoke to the Michigan attorney general's office. Apparently, there is no numerical limit to the times per day a creditor can call you number(s). BUT...the AG's office suggested contacting the creditor by certified mail demanding that all future communication be by mail. I'm going to give it a shot.
According to the Fari Debt Collection Practices Act, a THIRD PARTY COLLECTOR cannot call before 9 am or after 10 pm. It does not specifically state how many times per day they can call.
On the other hand, if your friend owes the car loan company, and they are calling her (not a third party collection agency), there are no limitations as to where, when or how often they can legally call.
Tell her pay her bill, and she won't have to worry about it until next month.
20yrsinBranson
There are state law also not just federal. I texas if you tell them they are harassing you and not to call back then report it to the attorney generals office.There are courts they can go to witout harrassment which is why the laws in most states.
They can call as many times till you talk to them. You owe the money. You didn't pay, you signed a contract, you have to deal with the calls. That's your fault not theirs. Telemarketers are different. But debt collectors have must more lax rules because they are not soliciting, they are trying to collect a debt that is OWED. Nothing wrong with that. A business is in business for money. If you sign that you owe money, you owe the money. Getting an attorney to stop the calls is insane. You can notify them in writing (every company has this option with loans) that they cannot call, they must only communicate through the mail. You have to mail a signed statement in though. This isn't difficult. You're avoiding your responsibilities and trying to blame them trying to collect money on your mistakes. It's not their fault they trusted you to pay, it's yours.
I tend to agree with this.
Put it in a different perspective: Say your office payday is on the 1st of the month. The 1st comes and goes and you don't get a paycheck, no check on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th...maybe they get around to paying you on the 7th of the month. Would it be harrassment to keep calling / e-mailing / talking to your boss / HR department / payroll department every day between the 1st and the 7th to find out where your paycheck is?
I am guessing the same people advocating getting an attorney or finding a legal way to stop debt collectors from contacting them would also be the first ones to advocate getting an attorney or finding a legal way to get their employer to pay up. In other words, when it is money that is owed to you, it is a whole different ballgame than when you owe money to someone else.
I am guessing the same people advocating getting an attorney or finding a legal way to stop debt collectors from contacting them would also be the first ones to advocate getting an attorney or finding a legal way to get their employer to pay up. In other words, when it is money that is owed to you, it is a whole different ballgame than when you owe money to someone else.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but last I checked their is no law protecting an employer from the calls of an employee who hasn't been paid.
Most places will only make contact with you once a day maximum.
But, they will call several times until they actually speak with you. We would only leave 1 message a day though, but we would call and ask for the person over and over. When I worked in collections, we started calling at 8am and we stopped at 9pm, we could call people up to 7 times in a day. (This was back from 2000-2005).
I will tell you, from my experience, that when you send a Cease and Desist letter to them to stop calls, especially on something like a car, they will probably expedite the process to repossess your car, or, in the case of a credit card or unsecured debt, send it to an attorney for a possible legal review.
Legally may be one issue - I'm not sure as I've never been hounded by collection agencies. But I agree at least in principal - if you signed an agreement and owe a person or a company money, and you fail to pay on time, they have every right to do what they need to in order to collect what they are owed. The people failing to live up to their end of the agreement are in the wrong - people being "harassed" for not paying their bills / holding up their end of the bargain are not the victims here.
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Originally Posted by Bosco55David
Correct me if I'm wrong, but last I checked their is no law protecting an employer from the calls of an employee who hasn't been paid.
Again, I am unsure of the laws - I am not a lawyer nor do I play one on TV - my point was that it is the same type of situation: Two parties enter into an agreement where party A agrees to pay $X.XX for goods and / or services from party B. If party B provides those goods / services and then party A does not pay for those items, as previously agreed, then party A is in the wrong and party B should be allowed to do whatever they deem necessary to collect payment.
My point was that people will complain about being "harassed" by a collection agency attempting to collect money owed from them, but those same people would see the situation much differently if they were the ones the money was owed to.
The people failing to live up to their end of the agreement are in the wrong - people being "harassed" for not paying their bills / holding up their end of the bargain are not the victims here.
The funny part with this is that collection agencies are notorious for hounding the wrong person. I read a statistic awhile back that said something like 47% of contacts an average collection agency will make are not the right person. It doesn't generally stop them though, and I've personally dealt with that myself.
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Again, I am unsure of the laws - I am not a lawyer nor do I play one on TV - my point was that it is the same type of situation: Two parties enter into an agreement where party A agrees to pay $X.XX for goods and / or services from party B. If party B provides those goods / services and then party A does not pay for those items, as previously agreed, then party A is in the wrong and party B should be allowed to do whatever they deem necessary to collect payment.
Well using that logic, why not just let them kidnap your dog or break your kneecaps too?
This is another funny thing too. When you're dealing with a collection agency, party B is almost never going to get the money. What happens is party B sells the rights to this debt for 10 cents on the dollar to some collection agency who then tries to collect on the full amount. Even if party A pays every penny, party B won't be seeing any of that. It's just a windfall profit for the collection agency.
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My point was that people will complain about being "harassed" by a collection agency attempting to collect money owed from them, but those same people would see the situation much differently if they were the ones the money was owed to.
I'm sure we both agree that people should pay the debts they rightfully owe, but as the saying goes, life happens. People get sick, they lose their jobs, they end up in over there head or any of a hundred other scenarios.
I have no issue with anyone (consumer or business) attempting to collect debts rightfully owed to them, but there are laws and rules that they must follow to do so. The debt collection industry by and large, refuses to follow these rules.
If anyone is still reading this post, this question is on the originating loan, not a 3rd party collector. All the laws that are being quoted only apply to the 3rd party, so we still need info on laws for the originating company harrasment calls.
There is nothing legally wrong with asking someone for money and doing it often. Sad but true. They just can't call outside 8am to 9pm. What most collectors realize is calling every 10 minutes will not get them a collection faster.
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