LITTLE ROCK — As I've stated before in this space, I haven't always made the best decisions as far as finances are concerned.
And in more than one case, I've heard from a bill collector who wanted to know when I planned to cough uphis, or his client's, overdue payment.
Many of these bill collectors were admirably professional - and actually proved a great help to me in resolving a debt. Some, not so much. I reacted to the bad apples the same way most of us do in such cases: Stuttered promises that dug me further in the hole or that I couldn'tkeep at all - and left me feeling even more like a screwup.
For now, thank goodness, those days are over. Problem is, my husband and I still get calls from bill collectors.
Bill collectors looking for somebody else. Usually, the people they're looking for are people who share our surname or my former surnames, or whose names are similar to the fake one we use for our phone-book listing.
It's always the same deal. The phone rings. One of uschecks the Caller ID, which yields a toll-free or otherwise unrecognizable number. We let the voice-mail system pick up.
Once or twice a week we'll check the messages. Sometimes, there's silence. Sometimes, an automated voice says, "This is the Student Loan Shakedown Association calling for [Name du Jour]. Please call [number]."
Sometimes Miss Auto-Voice will have the nerve to add, "If this is not [Name du Jour], please hang up" - as if she's paying our bills and has the right to tell us what to do with our phone.
After having wrestled mightily with bill collectors, it's frustrating to have to endure somebody else's as well. Our downstairs apartment-complex neighbor told us she, too, gets other people's collection calls. AndI won't get into the occasional debt-collection snail-mail we get in other people's names.
Seems to me that if Peter owes you money, shaking down Paul for it isn't going to help.
Tenant.net, a New York-based online resource for residential tenants, says collection agenciesoften look for debtors by checking addresses in credit reports. In the case of unlisted numbers, the Web site says, "If you have an unusual name, the collector calls all numbers with that name, looking for a relative," and lures debtors into calling them collect so they can find out the number from which the debtor called.
They find out a debtor's street address from the U.S. Postal Service, even if that person gives out only a box number as a mailing address. Or, they buy the debtor's contact information from a company that collects mailing lists. And, they call the people the debtor listed as credit references.
OK, so why can't they find the people they keep leaving us messages for?
An article at Oregonlive.com may have the answer.
"Often, third-party firms [paid by the original creditors to go after debtors] are working on longoverdue bills with old contact information," the article reported, adding that "third-party firms ... skate into sketchy territory if they call repeatedly - after being told they've got the wrong person - and are harassing or won't identify themselves or what creditor they represent."
Those hounded by bill collectors, especially someone else's, have certain rights under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
Every time I consider exercising those rights, I read yet another horror story posted at online forums by someone who tried to so. Not only did the bill collector refuse to go away, he got all mafia on them. Some forum posters say to complain or sue; others say that no matter what complaints or lawsuits are filed, they won't stop the actions of less-than-honorable debt collectors.
Maybe it's all a plot. Maybe said bill collectors believe that if they annoy the wrong people enough, the wrong people will be galvanized to help locate the debtors.
Meanwhile, there's a good chance that the people whose unpaid bills we're getting hounded for are getting hounded by other people's collection calls and notices.
Strangely enough, that's the one thing that makes me feel better.
This is an attempt to collect an email:
Style, Pages 51, 52 on 08/30/2009