So you go to answer the phone and you’re not really thinking too much about this weird number. By the time you get off you wish you had thought twice about that call. Your mad and confused and going how me? You’re asking why me? How do I fix this? They can’t help you. You are being told that you owe money to someone for something that is not your doing!
If they have your information, then it must be out there somewhere! We can not just sit there thinking that it will all just go away. It will just get worse. But where to start. How about with what you already know. The name of the company, what they are looking for or wanting. They want information out of you. But you want just as much information out of them. Even the name, time, date of when the calls take place or letters start coming in. First you need to see if this is a real company. So many people out there are just looking for there next free ride.
Now that you know the company is real. What kind of collection agency are they? Is it a medical? A car company? The list goes on and on! Most people that are calling on a collection have been looking for a while to find what they believe to be a person that is looking at trying to get out of the problem. Could this be something that you forgot about? Where you might owe money to a credit card company and they have sold to someone else and that this is the company that is trying to collect there money now. Request a copy of the invoice of the debt that they “say” you owe.
So we know are sure that everything is real but the fact that this debt is yours. A good first place to start looking is at your credit report. Sometime the problem is human error. But then there are others that someone used your identity for themselves. But the collectors dose not care about that! All they care about is that they want there money. Look at the dates this stuff was opened and where it was opened. If it is a social security issue then we need to get with them and start a very long process that will be allot of work and can take years!
The most important thing is to never say you are going to pay this debt and/or start payment agreements with them until you are sure it’s yours to be paid on! When you start to get somewhere with the fact this is not yours, but know where the trail might be going tell them. Keep them informed, and if it goes as far as getting the police involved, make sure they also know what is going on. It is not an easy path to take, but once it is all fixed you will be happy that you got that phone call from one of the most hated people in the world. The debt collector.