Collection Agency Phone Calls

[SingleMomAZ]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Arizona

This past summer, I called the collection agency whom now has my medical bills and set up a payment plan. It is to be automatically deducted from my checking account every month. Beginning in October, I began receiving phone calls from them. (I do not answer numbers I don't recognize so after the phone call, I googled the number)

Are they allowed to do this? I mean I worked with them on this and now they are bothering me every day. Any legal action that I can take towards them?

 

[justalayman]

you have no idea why they called you, right? Maybe they wanted to offer you a "one time only pay it off now price" that is greatly reduced from the actual bill.

Unless you know it is harassing, it's really hard to claim it is.

 

[cosine]

you have no idea why they called you, right? Maybe they wanted to offer you a "one time only pay it off now price" that is greatly reduced from the actual bill.

This is very possible. The higher number of bankruptcies in the past 2-3 years has made a larger number of collection accounts uncollectible, and thus has hit the bottom lines of a great many collection firms. Offers like this, sometimes for just 50% of the balance, is a way to get some quick cash to help them avoid their own bankruptcy. But do expect to get a 1099C on any "forgiven" amounts, which you then have to pay tax on as income (e.g. they gave you money to pay the debt). They are required to do these 1099Cs, at least if they want to claim the loss on their own tax filings (and you can bet they do).