Question about bill collectors..

[slacker77]

I had a bill collector call my boss at work trying to get ahold of me.Luckily my boss is pretty cool.I just wanted to know if there is any kind of law that prohibits collectors from disturbing you at your place of employment.

[Thunder Dan]

I had a bill collector call my boss at work trying to get ahold of me.Luckily my boss is pretty cool.I just wanted to know if there is any kind of law that prohibits collectors from disturbing you at your place of employment.

no. I think they can try and get ahold of you wherever. Depending on who they are, they can garnish your wages which gets alot of people fired, so you might want to take care of that bill

[coyotes_geek]

Not that I know of. Back in college I had a roomie who tried filing a harrassment complaint with the police on some bill collector that kept hounding him. Didn't work though.

[slacker77]

Dam.that sux.Thing that gets me is that it is a medical bill from 6 years ago.I'm gonna pay it when the income tax comes in,but wtf?6 years ago?

[BacktoBasics]

They cannot legally contact you at your workplace if you verbally tell them not to. Make a record of when you told them to back off and exactly what you said and their response. Then contact the attorney generals office if it persists. They cannot legally garnish your wages either. Only the government backed loans allow for that. Or backed taxes.

[BacktoBasics]

Dam.that sux.Thing that gets me is that it is a medical bill from 6 years ago.I'm gonna pay it when the income tax comes in,but wtf?6 years ago?Don't pay that. Wait a year and then send the letters out to the bureaus requesting that it be removed due to statute of limitations. Provide documentation of the original debt to prove its age of 7 years. Unless its just a couple hundred dollars. Then just pay it.

[samikeyp]

They cannot legally contact you at your workplace if you verbally tell them not to. Make a record of when you told them to back off and exactly what you said and their response. Then contact the attorney generals office if it persists. They cannot legally garnish your wages either. Only the government backed loans allow for that. Or backed taxes.

This.

Fair Credit Reporting Act...I think its called.

[CubanMustGo]

http://www.finweb.com/banking-credit/dealing-with-bill-collectors.html

"The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is the federal law that dictates how and when a debt collector may contact you. It stipulates that a debt collector may not call you before 8 a.m., after 9 p.m., or while you're at work if the collector knows that your employer doesn't approve of such calls. Collectors may not harass you, lie to you, or use unfair practices when they try to collect a debt. Also, they must honor any written request from you to stop further contact, but you must know the rules. The FTC states: "You can stop a debt collector from contacting you by writing a letter to the collector telling them to stop. Once the collector receives your letter, they may not contact you again except to say there will be no further contact or to notify you that the debt collector or the creditor intends to take some specific action. Please note, however, that sending such a letter to a collector does not make the debt go away if you actually owe it. You could still be sued by the debt collector or your original creditor."

[slacker77]

^^Thanks all for the info.B2b,I knew I should have talked to you first.

[RandomGuy]

no. I think they can try and get ahold of you wherever. Depending on who they are, they can garnish your wages which gets alot of people fired, so you might want to take care of that bill

Student loans and the IRS can get your wages garnished.

Unsecured creditors generally cannot, this would include credit cards etc.

Unsecured creditors can take you to court and get a judgement to seize assets, but there are certain exemptions built into the Texas statutes.

http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/FI/htm/FI.392.htm

SUBCHAPTER D. PROHIBITED DEBT COLLECTION METHODS


Sec. 392.301. THREATS OR COERCION. (a) In debt collection, a debt collector may not use threats, coercion, or attempts to coerce that employ any of the following practices:

(1) using or threatening to use violence or other criminal means to cause harm to a person or property of a person;

(2) accusing falsely or threatening to accuse falsely a person of fraud or any other crime;

(3) representing or threatening to represent to any person other than the consumer that a consumer is wilfully refusing to pay a nondisputed consumer debt when the debt is in dispute and the consumer has notified in writing the debt collector of the dispute;

(4) threatening to sell or assign to another the obligation of the consumer and falsely representing that the result of the sale or assignment would be that the consumer would lose a defense to the consumer debt or would be subject to illegal collection attempts;

(5) threatening that the debtor will be arrested for nonpayment of a consumer debt without proper court proceedings;

(6) threatening to file a charge, complaint, or criminal action against a debtor when the debtor has not violated a criminal law;

(7) threatening that nonpayment of a consumer debt will result in the seizure, repossession, or sale of the person's property without proper court proceedings; or

(8) threatening to take an action prohibited by law.

(b) Subsection (a) does not prevent a debt collector from:

(1) informing a debtor that the debtor may be arrested after proper court proceedings if the debtor has violated a criminal law of this state;

(2) threatening to institute civil lawsuits or other judicial proceedings to collect a consumer debt; or

(3) exercising or threatening to exercise a statutory or contractual right of seizure, repossession, or sale that does not require court proceedings.



Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 1008, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1997.





Sec. 392.302. HARASSMENT; ABUSE. In debt collection, a debt collector may not oppress, harass, or abuse a person by:

(1) using profane or obscene language or language intended to abuse unreasonably the hearer or reader;

(2) placing telephone calls without disclosing the name of the individual making the call and with the intent to annoy, harass, or threaten a person at the called number;

(3) causing a person to incur a long distance telephone toll, telegram fee, or other charge by a medium of communication without first disclosing the name of the person making the communication; or

(4) causing a telephone to ring repeatedly or continuously, or making repeated or continuous telephone calls, with the intent to harass a person at the called number.

Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 1008, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1997.

(click the link to read more)

There is also a rather toothless Consumer Credit COMMISSIONER that has something of a reputatino for being more interested in representing business interests than anything else.

There is also a section of law governing what propety is excempt from creditors claims:
http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/PR/htm/PR.41.htm

In plain terms this is a house where you live, $60,000 total worth of cash, household goods, clothes, etc, and one car per person in household licensed to drive.

Hope this helps.

[SpursStalker]

I had a bill collector call my boss at work trying to get ahold of me.Luckily my boss is pretty cool.I just wanted to know if there is any kind of law that prohibits collectors from disturbing you at your place of employment.

Perhaps pay your bills and they wont be calling ...

Just a suggestion.

[CosmicCowboy]

I have a couple guys that work for me that get calls. I tell collectors calling for them that this is a business and they need to call them at home. I had a really aggressive one last week that kept asking what "the best time to call to get him" was. I finally just said "what fucking part of DON'T EVER CALL THIS NUMBER AGAIN didn't you get?"

[RandomGuy]

Perhaps pay your bills and they wont be calling ...

Just a suggestion.

Don't lose your job or get hospitalized without insurance...

Just a suggestion.

#1 cause of personal bankruptcies in the US: medical bills

The costs of having so many people without health insurance are hidden and buried in everything we buy for a myriad of reasons. What to do about it is something for the politics forum, but I will note this fact here.

[BacktoBasics]

Perhaps pay your bills and they wont be calling ...

Just a suggestion.He did say medical. These things just pop up out of nowhere. It doesn't get any more unethical than the medical industry and their billing practices.

Hell I paid 100% up front cash for my surgery and I still got random bills 6 or so months later.

[samikeyp]

Don't lose your job or get hospitalized without insurance....

this.

[slacker77]

Don't lose your job or get hospitalized without insurance...

Just a suggestion.

#1 cause of personal bankruptcies in the US: medical bills

The costs of having so many people without health insurance are hidden and buried in everything we buy for a myriad of reasons. What to do about it is something for the politics forum, but I will note this fact here.

I did have insurance at the time.This is the balance that my insurance didn't cover.

[slacker77]

Perhaps pay your bills and they wont be calling ...

Just a suggestion.

Ya I know this,but sometimes that is alot easier said than done.

[RandomGuy]

He did say medical. These things just pop up out of nowhere. It doesn't get any more unethical than the medical industry and their billing practices.

Hell I paid 100% up front cash for my surgery and I still got random bills 6 or so months later.

Surgeries involve many differnent billing entities. You might have paid ONE of them up front, but the others probably got missed.

This is one reason why overhead costs for health care are a huge part of the costs, because insurance companies have to handle so many claims for each "health encounter" and doctors have to submit so many different forms for each different insurer.

[RandomGuy]

I did have insurance at the time.This is the balance that my insurance didn't cover.

that is the suck.

the out of pocket expenses will simply increase every year for even the best of insurance, as employers and policyholders seek to keep costs low, and insurers attempt to offer products that do that. the only real way to do that is for the insurers to pay less by more medical costs being pushed off on policyholders more and more each year.

Health savings accounts are good ways to set aside $$ for this.

Our current system is unsustainable for this and many other reasons. a lot of self-reinforcing cycles at play.

[marini martini]

Just tell them you will send a payment every month. Send them a check for $10.00!

[RandomGuy]

Just tell them you will send a payment every month. Send them a check for $10.00!

That is the good thing about medical bills: they generally don't charge interest.

This is actually a very good plan. It might take you 50 years to pay it off, but even small amounts paid will stop the calls for medical bills.

Another alternative, if the debt is big enough is chapter 7 bankruptcy.

The credit card companies forced a "means test" (i.e. you make too much money, and the ceiling is REALLY low) on this though that shunts a lot of people out of chapter 7 (dismiss debt) to chapter 13 (restructure, but many fewer set-asides of debt)

If you dont pass the means test for the chapter 7 clean slate, you get saddled with the chapter 13 debt plan.

[marini martini]

That is the good thing about medical bills: they generally don't charge interest.

This is actually a very good plan. It might take you 50 years to pay it off, but even small amounts paid will stop the calls for medical bills.



Yeah, you don't want to get me started on bill collectors!!!:ihit:ihit:ihit

Although I do have a funny, but long story about the bitch I paid $10.00 a month too, for 3 1/2 years!!!:lol:toast:lol

[BacktoBasics]

Surgeries involve many differnent billing entities. You might have paid ONE of them up front, but the others probably got missed.

This is one reason why overhead costs for health care are a huge part of the costs, because insurance companies have to handle so many claims for each "health encounter" and doctors have to submit so many different forms for each different insurer.No I was very specific to cover each doctor, their nurses or helpers, the anesthesiologist, the hospital, the hospital nurses, parking, everything was to be handled pre-payed up front with no surprises. I pulled together each portion of the operation and asked if there would be anyone else who might see me, touch me or breath near me that could result in a bill. I was assured that I was up to speed and everything was paid for. I even pre-payed my follow ups.

6 months later 900 dollar bill. Two weeks after that 225. None of them attempted to collect anything from me. Just straight to collection. I literally had to physically threaten them to take my money and keep the bill off my credit report. It got ugly. I'm not allowed back in certain buildings.

[SpursStalker]

Ya I know this,but sometimes that is alot easier said than done.

How can paying your bills be easier said than done?

You get a bill ... you pay the bill.

Pretty straight forward if you ask me.

:lol

[DisgruntledLionFan#54,927]

How can paying your bills be easier said than done?

You get a bill ... you pay the bill.

Pretty straight forward if you ask me.

:lol

This post is even stupider than your earlier one.

Think more, post better.

Just a suggestion.

[BacktoBasics]

How can paying your bills be easier said than done?

You get a bill ... you pay the bill.

Pretty straight forward if you ask me.

:lol
I just explained to you a scenario where I was billed with out notice. Actually I wasn't billed at all. I found out when the collection agency called me looking for resolution.

[SpursStalker]

I just explained to you a scenario where I was billed with out notice. Actually I wasn't billed at all. I found out when the collection agency called me looking for resolution.

I didn't see a post from you to me?

I can understand that aspect of it.

But a hospital bill is a bill that you know about ...

I guess I do things differently than everyone else when it comes to paying bills.

:lol

[BacktoBasics]

I didn't see a post from you to me?

I can understand that aspect of it.

But a hospital bill is a bill that you know about ...

I guess I do things differently than everyone else when it comes to paying bills.

:lolNo a bill is not just a bill. Especially in the medical world. I fully believe and am living proof that in some cases they don't even bill you at all. They just wait 4 or 5 months and shoot it off to the collection agency for a fee.