Are you getting rude or aggressive collection calls? Here is how to deal with angry & rude collection agents.

Creditors and Collection Agents can be downright nasty! They often incessantly call people at home, at work, and even sometimes try to call a neighbor or relative to intimidate and scare debtors (a person in debt).

The good news is that we live in CANADA! In Canada we have rules, and some of these rules are to help protect people from harassing and abusive collectors. Here are some helpful ways to take advantage of these rules and help get the collectors to stop calling you.

1. Tell them to Stop! – Sounds overly simple, but it is true. Legally, all you need to do is inform a collector in writing (it MUST be in writing – fax, email, or snail mail) that you want them to stop calling you. At 4 Pillars we want to help – We can assist you. We have a form you can sign and send to the creditors that generally makes them stop calling you.

2. Call them – and work out a payment arrangement: but keep in mind that if you are quite a few months behind on payments, then they will be very firm on the phone with you, but it is still a good idea to go this way if you want to get back on track with your payments. If you’re working with us, then we will create a plan to deal with all your debts collectively and get you a payment plan you can afford.

3. Settle with them – you can hire us to help create a plan to settle up your debts – that means that if you are willing to make them a reasonable settlement offer they are likely to forgive a big portion of your debts and allow you to move on and be debt free for less than what you owe. Of course you need money or access to money to make a settlement deal. OR, if you’re working with us, we can work with you to make arrangements that allow you to get out of debt; we can often arrange for you or work out a 0% interest payment plan that lowers your debt and reduces your monthly payments and allows you to get out of debt fast for a big discount. Once an offer is made to the creditors the collection calls stop.

4. File a complaint – Believe it or not, if you have asked a creditor or collector (in writing) to stop calling you and they do not – you can file a formal complaint and they may get fined or worse. So ask in writing that they stop, then if they do not, find out who is calling you and make a log of who called and when, then file a complaint with the office of “Consumer Protection BC” if it is a collector. Here is the link to file a complaint.

If it is a bank harassing you, then you can ask them in writing to not contact you over the phone and insist they contact you only by mail. You can also file a complaint with the banks Ombudsman which you can find on each banking website.

IMPORTANT – you should always seek the advice of a professional independent Debt Restructuring service like 4Pillars Consulting to make sure you have a plan to deal with all your debts, not just deal with the ones that call the most.

If you do not have a plan to deal with your debts and you simply tell the creditors to stop calling you then they could decide to sue you and attempt to go after your property or garnish your wages. When dealing with creditors, it is a very serious matter and we recommend always seeking the advice of a professional in the industry before making a decision.

If you are working with us, our job is to help you (i) protect your assets (ii) reduce your debts (iii) stop the creditors from calling!