What Is Debt Collection Harassment?
Debt collection harassment is defined as when your creditors or the collection agencies they employ to collect on your debts make unreasonable attempts to collect the monies owed.
From my own experience, I have had creditors ringing my home everyday in some cases, leaving voicemails daily and writing threatening letters.
It doesn’t bother me as I understand that they have to do this as its’ just their job and it will work on some people who will allow themselves to be “bullied” into making payments they may not be able to afford.
I know that if I make regular monthly payments, regardless of whether the payment is well below what the creditor would consider satisfactory, the creditor cannot really do anything about it. The creditor has to accept the payment and hope that I can reduce my outgoings or increase my income.
It’s unlikely that I would make any effort to reduce my outgoings just so that I can increase my payments to my creditors, and while I owe money and am obliged to pay it back, I have no real incentive to find a better paid job – all it would mean is that I have more money left over each month to pay my creditors.
So how does collection harassment benefit the creditor?
As you can see from my own experience, it doesn’t really, it just slightly angers me and strengthens my resolve not to pay more than I have to back to these people.
However, I can see that many people who are in debt are not in the fortunate position that I am in. They may well have equity in their homes, they may well have significant assets that could be used to repay the debts or they may be earning much more money.
If so, and were the creditors to take them to court, they could be ordered to pay back the debt through liquidating assets or pay it back from income, or worse still, have a charge put on their property such that when they come to sell, they would have to repay the debt from the equity in the home.
In situations like this, debt collection harassment works because it plays on the emotion of the situation and the rational thought process.
The emotional part is pride being dented, not wanting to be pushed around or have debt collectors turn up if one lives in a nice neighbourhood.
The rational thought process goes along the lines of, if I get a court order to repay the debt at £500 a month for 5 years (for example), that would be a severe tie, or simply the fact that all the equity that has been built up in the home could be lost leaving one starting at the bottom of the property ladder, again.
What can you do to stop debt collection harassment?
The simplest thing is to make an agreement with your creditors to pay them a regular amount. This does not have to be the minimum payment, nor does it have to be the 1% figure that the Consumer Credit Councelling Service require before they setup a debt management plan – it can be as little or as much as you can afford, as long as you explain to them what you can afford by way of a budget.
To work out your budget and see what you could realistically pay under a debt management plan, take a look at this website Help Me Get Out Of Debt which allows you to create a monthly budget for income and expenditure, and at the end of it gives you a realistic figure that you can afford under a debt management plan.