Debt Collectors Harassing You At Work?

It’s becoming more common place. Debt collectors are becoming more zealous than ever. The struggle with money is not foreign to much of the population. Unemployment is at 9.6%. That means 14.8 million people are without work. How many of those people, plus those who are still employed, but are in debt up to their ears, answer their phone for unknown numbers expecting to hear this:


“Hello, Mr. Doe. This is Bob with Acme Collections. We are calling again about your delinquent credit card account with XYZ Bank.  Could I get a payment of $250 by check over the phone from you today?”

Not only is it seriously frustrating when you find yourself in debt, but it’s even more annoying when you are trying to climb out of that pit by working your tail off at a job and you find yourself having to field calls there too. It is embarrassing to have to answer calls from a collection agency at your work. They know this. They are probably trying to use that fact against you.

The work phone you have, be it a company provided cell or a landline, is given out without hesitancy. However true that is, if asked to have that work number removed from the contact list they have, the collection agency must oblige and cease calling you at work. How and why is this possible? It is called the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and you can thank the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for it. The purpose of the act was to eliminate abusive debt collection behavior, including calling you at your place of employment, which is considered an invasion of individual privacy.

You can file a complaint with the FTC if you feel you have been wronged or an agency has overstepped its bounds. When you cannot obtain that company’s information, (many times a third-party collector will be outsourced to deal with your account) a reverse phone lookup can help get all the information you need to supply to the FTC.

Typically, just the threat of filling a complaint will stop debt collectors from calling your workplace. So next time you are being harassed by debt collectors make sure to mentioned that this is work phone number and if they call it again you will report them.