One out of three U.S. consumers has a debt in collections, but it often seems, based on news reports social media accounts, like many more have received a debt collection call recently. That suggests a lot of people are getting calls when they shouldn't. What can you do if a debt collector is bothering you over a mistake?
With 77 million people owing a debt, according to the Urban Institute, there's a lot of debt collectors making a lot of calls. Sometimes, those calls target the wrong people. There are plenty of reasons this might happen. Perhaps the debt has already been paid, but the consumer has not been properly credited. Perhaps identity theft is to blame. Sometimes, there's an honest mistake — fat fingers, perhaps — that attaches an incorrect phone number to a debtor's account.
A particularly pernicious wrong-consumer problem involves recycled phone numbers. Just like every other dwindling natural resource, America is running out of phone numbers, meaning telephone companies end up re-issuing old ones. A Federal Communications Commission study from 2011 says 37 million numbers were recycled annually, a huge jump from a decade earlier, due to the increased number of devices with numbers that consumers have.
But recycled numbers naturally end up causing problems when the new number holder gets calls intended for its prior user. Alicia Figluizzi, 34, suspected recycled numbers were the problem when she was hit by a flurry of debt collector calls last year. (Credit.com chronicled her story).
"I explain to the collectors that, 'If I was her, do you think I would be answering the phone?' They say, 'Sorry … blah blah,' " she told us. "But then three hours later, same company calls again. All day long. For weeks. Thankfully some have learned that I am in fact not the person they are looking for, and that, no, I do not know how to reach that person. It's mindboggling."
How Can I Make It Stop?
No matter the reason, wrong-number debt collector calls are a real hassle. So how can you stop them? There's no fool-proof method, because some callers break the rules, but here are suggestions, even for dealing with law-breakers.
1. Don't Ignore the Call
Plenty of consumers owe a debt and don't realize it. Even a small debt could cause you a big problem when you try to obtain credit. If you get a call from a debt collector, get all the details. (You should also check your credit to see if the debt is appearing on your credit report and affecting your credit score. You can get your free annual credit reports at AnnualCreditReport.com and see you credit scores for free each month on Credit.com.) Even if the company involved sounds unfamiliar, pay attention. That could be the result of a name change, or a debt that's been sold, or identity theft. This leads to tip No. 2.