Financial Help for Everyday Money Worries

“A Collection Agency Won’t Stop Robo-Calling My House, Even Though We Pay All Our Bills on Time”

“Return the call, because they aren’t going to stop ringing you,” says Gerri Detweiler, a personal-finance adviser for Credit.com, an independent education site. If you believe that the bill collector has mistaken you for someone else or called in error, ask it to remove your number from its list. “Believe it or not, most will comply,” says Detweiler. If the agency still claims you owe a debt and won’t take you off its call list, ask it to send you something in writing. (It is required to do so by law.) After all that, if you’re still receiving calls during dinner hour, ask for the agency’s address and send it a certified letter telling it to stop contacting you. Additionally, you can file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (consumerfinance.gov). Also worth knowing: If you’re being contacted about a family member who is in debt, you are not legally required to provide any information about that relative to the debt collectors.