If
you've ever had an unpaid bill go to a collections agency, you know
what a hassle they can be. These companies are paid according to the
bills that they collect on - and they'll often go extreme lengths to
make that money.
As an example, I heard of one person who received a call from a debt
collection agency who had the right name - but the client's wrong
address. The client had actually never lived at the address in question,
or anything even close to that address. So he told the collection
agency that they had the wrong person. The individual on the other end
of the phone insisted that he did, but as the disagreement progressed,
ended up yelling at the client and eventually hanging up the phone (or
getting cut off, or something).
The client suspected it was a
fraudulent call of some sort and, since he never heard from the
collections agency again, he didn't think anything of it. Until he went
to apply for a mortgage - and realized that his credit score was
terrible, thanks to an overdue utility bill that he had missed in his
move from Vancouver to Toronto four years earlier. That must have been
the charge that the debt collector was calling about - but he had never
named the charge, the company or any other information aside from the
debtor's incorrect address.
The debt collection agency broke a
number of rules in the above scenario. While the rules governing debt
collection agencies vary from province to province, these are the basics
you should be aware of:
1. A debt collections agency can only
contact your home between a certain set of hours - usually 7am to 9pm
or, in the case of Alberta, 10pm.
2. Debt collections agencies can't make more than three unsolicited phone calls in any period of seven consecutive days.
3. A
collector must give you the name of his agency, the name of the
creditor who is owed the money, and the balance of the bill. They can't
ask for more than what is owed, or request a form of payment that will
end up costing you money.
4. In many cases, the collector must
first send you a request for the funds in writing before they can
initiate a telephone follow-up. If you haven't received the original
written request, they must send you another one - and hold off on phone
calls for another five days.
5. A debt collector can't threaten or harass you in any way.
For
more information on your consumer rights when it comes to debt
collecting, visit your province's local Consumer Protection Offices, or
the Consumers' Association of Canada http://www.consumer.ca/1653
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