How to Get Collections to Stop Calling You

Many of us have been there. We’re struggling to pay off a debt, too scared to call our creditors, after all, we didn’t exactly have the money to pay, why call to tell them that? And then those phone calls start rolling in. It’s scary, someone you owe money is after you, so sometimes our flight reflex kicks in and we just ignore the phone ringing.

Well there’s instant good news. You have the right to tell the collector you do not want to be contacted. Here is a sample letter you can use to ask them to stop contacting you. Once you do that, they legally cannot contact you again except to tell you they will no longer contact you or to tell you they will be pressing legal charges. But that might not be the best thing for you to do.

When a collector is calling you, yes sure it’s because they want you to start paying again, but they also know that you might not have the funds. If you are having a hardship, for example, your pay has decreased, you’re struggling with an illness or disability, you got a divorce, or anything else that might have caused your life to be more difficult recently, you might qualify for hardship relief. Your creditor might pause your payments, reduce your monthly minimum, reduce your interest rate, or find another program to help you during this time. Check your creditor's website and see if they offer any hardship assistance.

If your debt is charged off (you’ve missed 6+ payments) and the creditor has written off your debt. At this point, they might sell your debt to a debt buyer, and they might start calling you. This is actually advantageous to you. Because they’ve purchased your debt, sometimes for as little as 1–8% of what you owe, this allows you to negotiate down your debt.

In conclusion, getting a collections agency to stop calling you is pretty easy, but it might not be in your best interest. A creditor can decide to sue you, but more importantly, you’re better off finding out if there are other ways you can get debt relief.