How to stop a debt collector from contacting you?

You’ve fallen into a financial slump. You are having difficulty paying off your bills and the stress is growing. Debt collectors are professional who use lot of resources to track. Although it is quite difficult to avoid them, you have to take few steps to prevent collection agency from finding you. As if trying to pay off your bills on your own isn’t hard enough you receive a telephone call from a debt collector notifying you that your accounts have been turned over to a collection agency. It’s not like you forgot about your bills but now you are receiving several phone calls weekly to remind you of your debt. The constant contact of a third party agency can be very frustrating and bothersome. However the sooner the accounts are paid off the sooner the letters and telephone calls will stop. Most of the time someone is placed into collections it is because they owe a valid debt. But sometimes an individual is placed into collections inaccurately. In this type of case the debtor will want the agency to stop contacting them. Some debtors want the agency to stop contacting them at work or only contact them at certain times of day. Whatever the case may be the debtor must send the agency a written notice asking them to stop contacting them. Once the collection agency receives the notification to stop contacting the debtor, the agency may call the debtor one more time to inform them of any action they plan to take in order to collect the debt. The collector cannot threaten the debtor to secure payment. After that last telephone call the collector must cease all contact with the debtor. When the debtor decides to send a “cease and desist” letter to the agency, they should send the notice through certified and mail and request a return receipt. This way the debtor will know when the agency receives the letter and will have proof of when the letter was mailed in case the agency continues to contact the debtor. If the debtor has a fax number for the agency they should also send the letter through fax to ensure the agency receives the letter. All correspondence between the agency and the debtor should be kept in a file. Any letters received from the agency and a copy of the “cease and desist” letter should be kept in the file. Although sending a letter to the collection agency will stop the agency from contacting you, they will not stop their efforts to collect the account.