Father's creditors calling me

[tamccrackine]

Creditors who do skip-tracing don’t just call those who have co-signed on an obligation. If they are trying to locate someone, they might call neighbors, other creditors, persons who are likely to know the person they are trying to reach.

I’ve been called before for deliquency of my sister! She’s got a married last name, as do I, but I know she gave my name and number out to some agency. So when she skipped out on payment, they not only called me but also our grandmother!

Ironically, my sister also works for a credit collections company. And she’s always telling me how they are allowed to ignore the ones that tell them to stop calling. I do believe she’s speaking strictly of the ones that owe a legitimate debt that tell her to stop calling, but otherwise, I have no idea as to whom she’s referring. She’s good at the job because she can lie like the best of them, so she can beat them to the punch with the lies. But it’s sickening at what I hear sometimes.

 

[vluvski]

We constantly get mail for the previous resident of our house regarding unpaid debt, unpaid child support, and all sorts of nasty stuff.

We only maintain cell phones, so we generally don’t get misdirected phone calls.

 

[st_ignatius110]

I’ve been called before for deliquency of my sister! She’s got a married last name, as do I, but I know she gave my name and number out to some agency. So when she skipped out on payment, they not only called me but also our grandmother!

Ironically, my sister also works for a credit collections company. And she’s always telling me how they are allowed to ignore the ones that tell them to stop calling. I do believe she’s speaking strictly of the ones that owe a legitimate debt that tell her to stop calling, but otherwise, I have no idea as to whom she’s referring. She’s good at the job because she can lie like the best of them, so she can beat them to the punch with the lies. But it’s sickening at what I hear sometimes.

Please do note that not all of us are liars or mean and hateful on the phone. Although, many at my job are. Sigh. I am a top collector at my job and looking to get a pretty good promotion to management. How did I do this? By honesty and treating others as I would want to be treated in their situation.

 

[tamccrackine]

Please do note that not all of us are liars or mean and hateful on the phone. Although, many at my job are. Sigh. I am a top collector at my job and looking to get a pretty good promotion to management. How did I do this? By honesty and treating others as I would want to be treated in their situation.

I believe that and have spoken with some really nice ones. I don’t have “vast” experience, however, one credit agency put a bad taste in my mouth by being the most vile and rude people trying to collect on a debt that I did not owe (back in 03 AOL tried to collect on people that had closed out their accounts. It went all the way to court and we joined a class action suit because AOL charged us for three months services AFTER we closed our account/paid in full, they never told us what was going on until I get a call from a collections agency and then I was treated so poorly that I had to send a letter to the agency to report the vile treatment I received. Come to find out, AOL fraudulently reused accounts for up to three months and charged the old users but because these user didn’t know about the accounts being used, well,l they never were paid! So they sent it to collections without the users knowing about it. AOL lost out in millions of dollars and instead of us oweing them the $85 they tried to collect on us, I got $56 from them! )

But as for my sister… you just have to know her to know my perspective. She’s good at her job because she’s a pathological liar and has used the very excuses to agents calling her to collect as the ones she receives every day from the people she now calls, kwim?

She too, believe it or not, is excellent at her job. I’m thankful every day she still has a job (she has had a hard time holding one down for awhile), I’m thankful that she’s relatively happy with doing her job and I do get pleased to hear of her progress. She does well with it.

But thank you for being an honest person and not badgering and not treating people like poo.

 

[st_ignatius110]

I believe that and have spoken with some really nice ones. I don’t have “vast” experience, however, one credit agency put a bad taste in my mouth by being the most vile and rude people trying to collect on a debt that I did not owe (back in 03 AOL tried to collect on people that had closed out their accounts. It went all the way to court and we joined a class action suit because AOL charged us for three months services AFTER we closed our account/paid in full, they never told us what was going on until I get a call from a collections agency and then I was treated so poorly that I had to send a letter to the agency to report the vile treatment I received. Come to find out, AOL fraudulently reused accounts for up to three months and charged the old users but because these user didn’t know about the accounts being used, well,l they never were paid! So they sent it to collections without the users knowing about it. AOL lost out in millions of dollars and instead of us oweing them the $85 they tried to collect on us, I got $56 from them! )

But as for my sister… you just have to know her to know my perspective. She’s good at her job because she’s a pathological liar and has used the very excuses to agents calling her to collect as the ones she receives every day from the people she now calls, kwim?

She too, believe it or not, is excellent at her job. I’m thankful every day she still has a job (she has had a hard time holding one down for awhile), I’m thankful that she’s relatively happy with doing her job and I do get pleased to hear of her progress. She does well with it.

But thank you for being an honest person and not badgering and not treating people like poo.

Hey, I never said honesty was the ONLY way to work your way to the top…lol. I understand. Hey, I have had some horrible experiences with bill collectors myself. I fully unsderstand.

 

[KittyKat]

I hope you can get them to quit calling you.
We have had one calling us for the 3 years we have had our number. They won’t believe that we are not the person they are looking for. I have to call back one of these days and try to get a human.

 

[JimG]

They won’t believe that we are not the person they are looking for.

I know of a lady who actually paid someone else’s delinquent taxes. An IRS revenue agent came to her door asking for payment of back taxes, and was so persistent that she finally gave him a check. Turned out to be someone else with the same name (but a different SSN). Some months later she got the money returned to her. Upon returning the money, the IRS was somewhat indignant, their attitude being, “well why did you pay it if it wasn’t your debt?”

 

[SeekerJen]

Ugh, I feel your pain. My cell phone number either was previously used by another woman, or she chose it at random. Either way, it was the contact number on several of her delinquent accounts, so for a couple of years I received calls from various creditors. It got to the point where I started asking the callers for their names, contact info, their employer, and a manager’s name/contact info so that I could report them for harassment and have my lawyer contact them. I had to do this with each one but it worked: they all finally stopped.

And no, it doesn’t matter if you cosign or not- the creditors will go to whatever lengths necessary. My husband has a doozie of an experience with a former employer. As the employer was a university, he was permitted to take a few credits free of charge each semester, provided he passed the credits and submitted the proper paperwork. He did both, no problem. A year and a half later, on Christmas Eve, his mother received a call from creditors who were looking for him. Keep in mind that at that point, he had not lived with his parents for 5 years. Apparently the university had lost their copy of his paperwork and were declaring his account delinquent. Also keep in mind that he was currently employed by that university, and the HR dept. had all of his current contact info on record. Rather than check their own records, the university accounts dept. started looking up and contacting all of his previous residences, finally hitting pay dirt with his parents. He had to track down another copy of the paperwork (from the HR office, of all places) and take it to the accounts people himself to show them that they had signed and dated it.

 

[JimG]

Please do note that not all of us are liars or mean and hateful on the phone. Although, many at my job are. Sigh. I am a top collector at my job and looking to get a pretty good promotion to management. How did I do this? By honesty and treating others as I would want to be treated in their situation.

I once worked in a loan servicing department, but I never harassed anybody. The goal was just to get the facts to see if the problem was solvable or not.

Once, trying to get hold of a guy who had quit making payments on a mobile home, I finally managed to get him on the phone. We discussed his finances. “So, where is the moblie home?” I asked. He said, “well, it’s in a different state and I’m not telling you where!” I just laughed.

 

[housewife]

Could you all believe the nerve of this same person?!

The person called again and I did not even let them talk!

Again, sounded very familiar like if I knew this person calling me by my first name like if its a friend of mine or something!

I did not even let the person talk. I said for them not to be calling here anymore that he (my father) did not live here and that I knew my rights and just hung up.

By the way, thank you for all your responses.

 

[housewife]

What do these people get for a pay? They must get paid really well for them to have such a job.

Does anyone know?

 

[JimG]

I believe that many collection agencies are paid a percent of what they collect. Not sure how that pertains to the individual employees, though.

 

[st_ignatius110]

What do these people get for a pay? They must get paid really well for them to have such a job.

Does anyone know?

Depends on where you work. I work for a major financial company. So, I am collecting on loans that we ourselves have made. Most of the time the REALLY rude and ugly collectors that call are from third party collection agency. A debt owed can be sold over and over and over again to other collection agencies. Sometimes the debt is several years old and has been sold many times over. I get paid a fairly good salary but it is the bonus that really motivates most collectors. At my company we are given a certain goal to collect mostly around 120,000-200,000.00 just depends on the month. If we collect that goal and a little more we can make up to an extra 2000.00 per month. This is one of the reasons some collectors will do whatever they have to in order to get the money. We had one guy get fired because he was making the monthly payments on all his big accounts just so they would move from his delinquency!

 

[Vincenzia]

Sorry to heard about your situation. My husband & I have been in a similar one and very recently too.
My mother-in-law (a real test to our marriage) & her now estranged husband had taken out several loans and never paid them back. The creditors were all over them and eventually us, her other kids and even ex-husband. The way they got our info was because they had used us as references on some of the misc. loans they had taken out (without asking!)
At first I was annoyed by the calls but then started to get a little leery and began checking our credit. Luckily we were safe but… she had dabbled in one the brothers credit. Borrowing in the wrong hands can be a bit of a downward spiral. I did give them the info I had (which they already had) and told them we really didn’t have any contact with them and the creditor never called again.
Rather than being mad at the callers, as they are just doing their jobs, maybe you should chat with your dad and see what the deal is. If the bills paid… they won’t call you anymore. If they are calling you this debt has gone unpaid for a very long time and if they have your info… perhaps he’s used your name as a reference at some point? Not trying to tick anyone off. I know how horrible it is to try and correct credit mistakes and problems and be annoyed by these people…but, why hasn’t anyone said hey … maybe this loan should be taken care of??? and no I’m not a creditor but I do work at a business that bills people and I know how ridiculous it is to try and get people to pay bad debts. Rather than being helpful they go on the defence, instead of being responsible and solving or at least attempting to solve the problem.
Good luck to you. You might want to get a credit report just for kicks and make sure your info is safe.
Also I know that there is a way to block certain phone numbers on your phone. Another good one is to ask them the name of the business (otherwise *69 them and google the number to get name) and tell them you are going to seek legal action of they keep harassing you.

 

[housewife]

Sorry to heard about your situation. My husband & I have been in a similar one and very recently too.
My mother-in-law (a real test to our marriage) & her now estranged husband had taken out several loans and never paid them back. The creditors were all over them and eventually us, her other kids and even ex-husband. The way they got our info was because they had used us as references on some of the misc. loans they had taken out (without asking!)
At first I was annoyed by the calls but then started to get a little leery and began checking our credit. Luckily we were safe but… she had dabbled in one the brothers credit. Borrowing in the wrong hands can be a bit of a downward spiral. I did give them the info I had (which they already had) and told them we really didn’t have any contact with them and the creditor never called again.
Rather than being mad at the callers, as they are just doing their jobs, maybe you should chat with your dad and see what the deal is. If the bills paid… they won’t call you anymore. If they are calling you this debt has gone unpaid for a very long time and if they have your info… perhaps he’s used your name as a reference at some point? Not trying to tick anyone off. I know how horrible it is to try and correct credit mistakes and problems and be annoyed by these people…but, why hasn’t anyone said hey … maybe this loan should be taken care of??? and no I’m not a creditor but I do work at a business that bills people and I know how ridiculous it is to try and get people to pay bad debts. Rather than being helpful they go on the defence, instead of being responsible and solving or at least attempting to solve the problem.
Good luck to you. You might want to get a credit report just for kicks and make sure your info is safe.
Also I know that there is a way to block certain phone numbers on your phone. Another good one is to ask them the name of the business (otherwise *69 them and google the number to get name) and tell them you are going to seek legal action of they keep harassing you.

Yes, I spoke to my father and said he did not put me as a reference, which I know he did not because I know my parents they are not like that and plus they know that I can find out. He has been ill lately and maybe that is why he is struggling to make his payments on time, etc… We, too, are struggling, therefore, even if we wanted to help, we would not be able to. It would jeopordize our credit.

The same happened with my SIL. They were calling me from her mortgage (this is according to her). She purchased her home many years before I even met her brother. Much less did I know her then and they were calling ME looking for her. I don’t know how they even came up with my name and number to be associated to her. I am not the sibling. My husband is and they were not even asking for him. They were asking for me.

If they do call me again looking for him, I will tell him that I don’t talk to him and to not call him here again…