In my last post I wrote about the use of what appear to be court forms with the word “draft” across them. Today, I will write about some of the practices that collection agencies use.

1. They don’t tell you who they are. The person claims to be calling from XYZ Visa, but they are really a third party collection agency. They advise that if you don’t pay by a certain date XYZ will take action. What they don’t tell you is that XYZ has already taken action by assigning your account to a third party collection agency.

2. They make it appear that they can just walk across the street to the court tomorrow and get a court order to garnishee your wages. This is just not true. In order to garnishee your wages the creditor needs a court order. In order to get a court order they need to give you notice of court and allow you time to file a defense, this takes a minimum of 21 days.

3. Rude behaviour. I had heard countless stories of the impolite tone that some collection agents use to try to get the debtor to pay them money. They also try to make you feel guilty because you owe money. The main point is not to let the caller get to you. If you don’t like the tone of their call, ask to speak with his or her supervisor. If that doesn’t work you can always file a complaint with the Ministry of Small Business and Consumer Services:

Consumer Protections Branch
5775 Yonge Street, Suite 1500
Toronto, ON M7A 2E5
Tel: 416-326-8802
Toll free: 1-800-889-9768
Fax: 416-326-8810

If you are getting collection agency calls you probably have a debt problem and you need to seek professional advice. You should call us at 310-PLAN and we can review your options with you, including referring you to a credit counselling agency.