Harassing collection calls when you owe debt can be a nightmare. People tell us all the time how relentlessly the phone can ring when they owe money. There is a way to minimize this and actually stop it in some cases.
The first thing you must understand is most collection agencies, telemarketers and banks have adopted predictive dialling systems for making outbound calls. They are highly effective because each agent doesn’t have to manually dial a number each time they call out. Instead they may hire 300 collectors for every 1,000 lines that are dialled out. The computer actually dials more numbers then agents available to take the calls. This minimizes time spent dialling numbers and getting disconnected numbers or no answers.
The way it works is when the computerized dialler recognizes a human voice on the receiving end of the call, it immediately connects the call to the first available bill collector. Sometimes there is a delay in the connection because the collectors are busy wrapping up another call, which is why you can sometimes end up saying “hello” several times before you talk to a human.
Your first step you should take is ordering a call privacy feature from your phone company. This feature essentially prompts the inbound caller with a message like “the person you are trying to reach does not accept calls from unknown or private numbers, please state your name before we attempt to connect you”. The computer isn’t able to state a name so the call drops and the call is not connected. Your phone doesn’t even ring.
This feature is offered by almost every phone company and goes by names like: call privacy, anonymous caller ID or anonymous caller rejection. I have looked at several phone providers’ websites and the price seems to range from $2/m to $5/m.
The other preventative step you should take when dealing with collection calls is to take steps to eliminate the debt. After all that is the only reason they are calling. A debt settlement plan with Total Debt Freedom can help you achieve this goal. There are also a number of additional steps that can be taken by the debt settlement company, these can help you reduce and stop the calls while getting your debts settled for less then you owe.
We are not advocating hiding from your payment obligations to your creditors, but rather adopting these tips will let you fight back and at least give you an opportunity to minimize the collection harassment while you work out a debt elimination strategy.
If you feel it’s time to do something about your debt, and want a free debt settlement consultation then please visit our home page and request a no obligation quote.
