PSA: Check your credit report! Creditors and their wide net...

[Pacifist Patriot]

Obviously creditors have gone beyond skittish to outright panic.

My husband has a relatively common name. Over the past months we have been getting increasingly frequent credit collection calls at all hour of the day and night. Each time it has been for someone else. Same name, different birthday. Same name, different city. Same first and last name, different middle initial.

At first the overdue bills were months in arrears, than 60 days past. This morning at 8AM a credit collection agent called to collect a payment that was due ten days ago. It was not the company to whom he owed the money, it was definitely a collection agent.

Creditors and collection agencies are casting a wide net and throwing it out immediately in order to make sure they have their money coming to them. Make sure you know exactly what is on your credit report.

When you get a collection call and you know you don't owe anything ask the following questions.

1) Birthdate of the individual they want.
2) Address of the individual they want.
3) Creditor seeing payment.

They will give you this information. Heck, they'll give it to you if you say you're the spouse. Unlike if you call your own credit card company to tell the fraud office you'll be out of the country for two weeks and they insist on speaking to your husband because he's the primary card holder. (My husband was unreachable out of the country so I had my son call them. They didn't blink because it was a male voice with the correct security information.) But that's a rant for another day.

We all know it's crazy out there and it's only getting crazier. We should all be doing diligence to know our credit rights.

Cheers!

[Zenlitened]

1. Kick.

:dem:

[MadMaddie]

2. I would also like to share what I have experienced

You could settle a debt with the debt collector and get a call from a new debt collector acting as it has never been paid.

They are bundling and selling these debts to the highest bidder and these debt collection agencies are betting on bullying individuals to pay for closed debts or debts they never owed.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. These collection agencies are getting very irritating.

We have excellent credit, but someone put our phone number down as their contact number and the collection agencies keep calling. The name doesn't even sound anything like ours. We've followed their instructions to advise them they have the wrong person and they still keep calling!

[Greyhound]

4. This is what happens when we allow an industry unprecedented power to

"grade" individuals and place no requirements on them and protect them from the consequences of their negligence.