With so many people late on bills: Anti-bill collector phone harassment legislation

If a company wants to make formal contact with an individual who is late on a bill, they can do it through the mail. Interstate phone harassment should be illegal, plain and simple. I remember back when I was a little kid, and we were poor, it seemed like I never had one day free of their calls after a certain point. As a kid, I was not responsible for what may or may not have occurred with a particular bill.

To this day, I still have a fear of answering telephones, it's sounds really weird, but when you're a kid growing up in that environment, it happens.

I know there are going to be a ton of kids out there in this environment who are going to go through the same thing. Phone harassment is a form of corporate stalking, and it must be stopped now. Being late on a bill should not be an excuse to make a family's life hell. It may even be a form of psychological torture.

We already have phone harassment laws on the books, but they are not specifically against bill collectors. While phone harassment may already be illegal, these companies obviously feel they can do as they please. It's time to stop that.

If a call originates from another state, and it is a part of a series of phone calls constituting a pattern of harassing behavior, then it should be illegal. The fine should be stiff, equivalent to whatever compensation the bill collector would receive for collection of the debt.

In addition, collectors should be expressly forbidden in the this same statute from using deceptive dealings on the telephone. A ban on calls to one's workplace should also be a part of this legislation. If a company needs to collect debt, it should perform that through the mail, in written documents.

If they can't collect it, then there are legal methods for them to do so. When debt has gone to collection, the person who has it is almost always certain that they are late on a bill. They don't need to be reminded every day hour on the hour that when they get the money to deal with the situation, they need to pay it. What's going on is a form of improper coercion. Were an individual owed money to do the very same thing, so frequently over such a long period of time, they would face a stiff fine or jail time, why should a corporation do any different?

I suspect these practices are a way to increase the profits of these companies, because they just don't want to pay lawyer fees to sue someone for this money.

I don't suppose that would be as cost effective as getting Apu in Bangalore to whine through the line.

thank you very much

vehicle repossesion, bill collectors, foreclosure agents and others of similar ilk as well as bounty hunters. Bottom feeders. They will thrive on their minimum salaries while others have no salaries.

Unfortunately, as another poster has already noted, collection agencies are a growth industry. One can open their doors as a "collection agency" with nothing more than a telephone and a business license in most states, and many ignore the laws. After all, you have to catch them first, you have to prove how they violated the law, and then you have to have the money to pay for an attorney. Someone who's getting collection calls doesn't have the money for an attorney, or they would pay the bill, wouldn't they?

Maybe I'm the only one, but I'd rather starve to death than work for a collection agency in any circumstance. Those that do are some of the lowest forms of humanity, IMHO.