Collection agencies calling my parents instead of me

it's pretty mortifying when they call your parents, eh?

it happened to me and i haven't lived there for 9 years!

yes, look at the letter templates on this website and they will give you a good start to how you can tell the CA's how to communicate with you. send certified return receipt letters. you need documentation of them receiving your demands so that you can report them if they break the law.

First off they cannot garnish your check without court judgement except in the case of student loans. If you wish to deal with these collectors,you will need to get mailing addresses for each one.Send them a debt validation letter certified return receipt. After they prove that debt is yours and that they are legally authorized to collect on it,then began settlement arrangements. If you dislike them calling,put a paragraph in letter stating it is inconveinent to call me and I desire to communicate per written method only. This gives you written proof of any business and it gets collector off your phone. Good luck.

Take the phone number of the collection agency from your mother and give a call. You need to know the status of your account from the debt collector and make sure that they are authorized for the collections. They are legally required to send you the debt information in writing. Ask your mother if she got anything in the mail.

Get the debt validated by the collector. See the FDCPA laws on how the validation process works. Chances are that your account is still with the original creditor, that's why the payments got posted towards the account. You should get someone on the phone from the original company and work out payment arrangements. If this is taken care of, there won't be any need of paying to outside collectors.

I am going to proceed with the validation process in the morning.

However like I said in my previous post, I am not going to call. everytime I have tried to call I have sat on hold forever and I'm not going to do it again. Plus the 'gentleman' who apparently has my file at NCO barely speaks english and I can hardly understand his voice mails.

Also, is it legal for them to only require telephone calls? What if I was deaf?

TTY.. :D

Depending on the state in which you live, those messages containing threats to go after your paycheck may be serious violations of the law. Save them to a recorder if you can. I have wiped out many debts with these types of claims; some with companies you named.

Quote:

My dad has been receiving calls from the collection company who is threatening to garnish my wages if full payment is not received. She has been calling my parents every single day and trying to get them to make the full payment. Please help... I had no idea that this could be illegal.

The state in which you live determines the law on wage garnishment. Fore example, the Texas constitution does not allow wage garnishment except for child support and governmental liens (ex. taxes). ANY threat of wage garnishment outside of these violates Texas Finance Code Chapter 392.

Similarly, if your state does not allow for wage garnishment for unsecured debt like credit cards, any threat of wage garnishment could be a violation of state law and federal law. If not, you could always consider moving to Texas. (jk)

Thanks for the reply. I just realized something that may be a little tricky and might be a loophole for the collection agnecy to be allowed to contact my parents.

I've lived in Ohio for the last 4 years, all my bills are sent here and I work here. However I never changed my drivers license to an Ohio one, it's still a wisconsin DL with my parents address (I never bothered to get a new one because my WI license doesn't expire until 2012. So I guess does this mean technically I'm still a Wisconsin resident?

It does not matter which state your valid residence is in. If the collector knows your current address and phone number, they have absolutely no reason to contact any other person.

If they do not have your current info, they may do a skip trace and find the address of your parents. In that case, you would have to provide your current info before they would be required to stop contacting third parties.

On the legal side; if legal in your state, record ALL phone calls withe these companies. With evidence provided by recorded phone calls, they have paid me thousands of dollars and forgiven many debts for my clients due to their disregard for the collection laws, state and federal.

They definately have my Ohio address. Not only is that the address on file for all my credit cards, but also the address they sent the first letter to.

And also when I sent the DV letters, I used my Ohio addy for the return addy on the envelope, the return addy for the return receipt, plus on the DV letter itself.

You said they are calling your parents. Make sure they have your current phone number and they will have no legal reason to call anyone but you.

Boy NCO just doesn't give up. Like I said in previous posts, I sent the DV letters on friday. When checking the USPS website, the letters were received but I haven't gotten the return receipts yet.

Sure enough I'm still getting voicemails from them.

Edit to add : just got the return receipt from NCO and the 'agent' didn't print his name like they are supposed to *sigh*

From 1999 to 2005 Bill Collectors and clerical staff at V&K have been stealing money and leased equipment from people all over the country. The scam was pretty simple. A collector would call the debtor explain that X amount of money was owed. This amount represented the actual bill (principle) and collection charges usually %20. The collector would tell the debtor to pay the principle to V&K and send the collection charges to the phoney agency, Muffucci Collections. V&K would report to the client that the principle was paid in full and the account was "settled in full". The collection charges went right into Ellen Muffucci bank account. The issue is that the account was "paid in full" and the debtor didnt get credit for paying the balance. The debtors credit report would list the account as "Settlement accepted on account" when actually the balanced was paid. If collateral was involved the principle was still paid, client was told account was settled in full and also that the equipment was bought. The debtor was told the account was settled but the equipment had to be sent to Muffucci collection. LOTS OF DELL COMPUTERS WERE STOLEN THIS WAY.

They were caught by a client. Ellen Muffucci, the ring leader, was dismissed. No charges were ever filed. NO WAY ELLEN was the only one involved. Fact is someone from the clerical department had to answer a phone call or two. It went on for 7 YEARS !!!

If Nco is still calling you or your parents after dv letter,they are breaking the law.Let's do one more thing from a evidence standpoint. Have your parents send them a full cease and desist letter with their address& phone number stating you are not living there.Have them mail it certified return receipt. If they continue to call after this,get a lawyer as you now have two fdcpa suits,yours & parents! :mrgreen:

Nice idea Cajun but according to my mom, the phone calls have stopped

Have they stopped at your residence too?

of course not, none today though because of course, I was going to start writing down call times. So go figure I have nothing to write down right now

I had CA calling my paretns house too until I have my parents number changed and marked private now no one bothers them

My parents refuse to change their number. They've had that number my whole life and are too stubborn to back down from anything.

Just today I sent off a DV letter to a new collection company calling me, Southern Capital Associates. I tried asking people on here for any opinions about that company but the only response I got was the usual 'Send a DV letter CMRRR' not even bothering to notice that I only wanted details about that company if they were good or bad *rolls eyes*