Why won't the creditors stop calling me after sending a Hardship Letter?

You’ve sent your Original Creditor’s a Hardship Letter.  You’ve included language like:  “Please only call me from 11am-4pm” or “Please do not call me after 5pm” to help manage calls– yet you are still receiving some collection calls.  What is going on? 

Including call control language in your Hardship Letter to request that the Original Creditors stop calling you, or only call you during certain times is not a guarantee that an Original Creditor will honor your requests.   Original creditors, unlike collection firms are not bound by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).  The FDCPA is a set of guidelines and rules for third party debt collectors and outlines how they may conduct business – including how and when a collector can call a debtor.  For example, if a debtor was to instruct a collection firm, in writing, not to call them, the collection firm would have to cease phone calls per the FDCPA.  This however, is not the case with Original Creditors. 

The good news though, is that some creditors will comply with your requests a courtesy.  Some Original Creditors will train their collectors to follow the FDCPA. All cases are different and no one can predict or guarantee what will happen, but if you have multiple credit cards, it is likely a few of your creditors will comply with your call control language.  And that could result in less collection calls. 

Keep in mind that you do not need to answer your phone for collectors if you do not want to.  It is your choice if you want to answer or let collection calls go through your voicemail. If you decide to answer collection calls, it is highly recommended that you review our Suggested Creditor Phone Call Scripts.