State: Arizona
I got behind in my bills after being laid off for a time last year. Now I'm gainfully employed, and am catching up quickly. I have discussed this with various creditors, and 1 or 2 have been reasonable and backed off when I provided them a repayment plan I could handle. The rest ranged from somewhat unreasonable to outright impossible. One wanted an up-front $2400.00 before accepting any payments on my debt. Needless to say, since I was out of work and now am catching up on my bills, I don't have $2400.00 to pay out. It's a tactic as old as sales and collection: Make a completely unreasonable request, and when the 'mark' turns it down, it becomes easier to get them to agree to another, slightly less unreasonable request. To save my remaining hair and sanity, I stopped answering my phone for numbers I don't recognize. I'm making my payments to catch up, but they keep calling as if I'm not.
The real issue is that they're calling my work incessantly. I'll get 2-3 calls per day from a single creditor. The problem I have is that the Fair Debt Collection Act doesn't protect me from this when it's an original creditor calling. If it was a third-party collection agency, I could write them a certified letter and they'd have to stop. I've read that each state has its own way of restricting original creditors' behavior. How do I get these people to stop calling my work? I don't mind if they write me letters or call my cell phone - they do have to try to collect. It should not be legal for debt collectors to contact people at work. This puts stress on their job that might well make collecting the debt even more difficult. However, it is legal, and so I'd appreciate any advice on getting it to stop.
To give a frame of reference to the type of harrassing calls I've been receiving, I'll give a sample of my auto finance collection department's calls.
I answer the phone and the caller tells me they're from ABC auto finance, trying to collect a debt. (I should state that I was never over 2 months late, so it's not implied that I was never paying)
They tell me that amount I currently owe and ask immediately if I'd like to pay that today. I tell them no, I can't afford that today.
They ask why I got behind, and I tell them I was laid off for a time, but now am back in the employment saddle, and will be catching up. I tell them I'll pay a full car payment every two weeks until I'm current.
The first payment in the agreement is paid, and less than a week later, they call again, telling me the total amount I owe and asking if I'd like to take care of that today.
They ask again why I got behind. Thinking someone might not have taken notes, I re-explain, and re-state my repayment plan.
The next day they call again and repeat the exact same thing. I ask if they haven't been taking notes on my reason for getting behind and my repayment plan, and they say yes, but they'll ask me these exact same questions every day until I get caught up.
After 2 months of this I changed my phone number.

