Does anyone know anything about the laws or collectors (besides that they are annoying lol)

Here is the situation....
My aunt (who is a year older than me) listed my grandparents as a reference to several place that are now trying to collect. They can't get a hold of my aunt, so they call my grandmother. My grandmother is elderly and in poor health (minor heart attacks and strokes)

If she tells them to stop calling her...do they HAVE to remove her from their contact list?

any ideas?

I believe so,, especially if she is not the debtor. It would be a pretty clear case of harassment.

Can a debt collector contact anyone else about my debt?

If an attorney is representing you about the debt, the debt collector must contact the attorney, rather than you. If you don’t have an attorney, a collector may contact other people – but only to find out your address, your home phone number, and where you work. Collectors usually are prohibited from contacting third parties more than once. Other than to obtain this location information about you, a debt collector generally is not permitted to discuss your debt with anyone other than you, your spouse, or your attorney.



http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre18.shtm



Might be better if you or another family sends a certified letter to the collector....(Keep a copy for yourself)

I looked it up for myself as when laid off last year tried to make a plan with HSBC and they refused while 2 other cards readily agreed.
Finally...after 8-10 calls a day from a collector(kid you not) I told them "Cease and desist". Apparently this is a little known fact that if you tell them this- they must! And they did.
It may be a little unscrupulous(sp) because it means you have a lawyer- I think-. They had raised my interest rate from 11 to 31 %
a late payment put me over the limit then they charged a over limit fee totalling 90 each month. This was for 2200. and they got it up tp 3700 in less than 11 months with all their fees..
Obama is trying to get a new law in 2010 that will slaughter the cc companies, no interest rate hikes, no cc to students or anyone without real income (verifiable) and others rules that make sense.
It's about time.
Document who you talk to each time and time called, it's harrassment! (which is also against the law)
Hope this helps. And have them cut all cards while they're at it. If you don't have the money, you can't get in trouble.

Exactly !

If they keep calling you.... you can tell them that you will contact the better business bureau and have them checked out and they can wait and hear from your lawyer .

thanks guys. My grandmother doesn't need the harassment from these people.

Get her a parrot, teach it to scream when ya hold the phone up to it. That takes care of a lot of problems.

Well, it did for me. Try and be polite, and work with things, but nope, get told off. So, I let Gaea deal with them.

I'd say have some fun with it. Tell them when they call that you are very happy that they called because someone kidnapped you and you are currently tied to a chair, and the people that did that to you are gonna be back in the next ten minutes. The reason the phone rang for so long was that you had to hop with the chair over to the phone.

keep in mind my grandmother is an 86 yr old woman with health problems

Get grandma a whistle!

First off- what did your aunt put your grandma down for a reference for? If ur aunt put ur grandma down for a place in which ur aunt resides the collectors are more than welcome to call...but with restrictions...

If ur aunt went and filled out an application at the local grocery store and somehow an agency obtained information off of her application, than someone's going to be in lots of trouble and the authorities should be involved.

Debt collectors may try to reach you at home or at your place of employment. At home, they can only reach you during reasonable hours and not more than like three times a week. At work, they cannot call more than once a week. Under no circumstances may they contact you in person. Anything that does not fall in these guidelines should be reported.

My aunt has the attitude that the world owes her and didn't bother to ask any one if she could use them as a reference or not.

needless to say....I'm not happy with my aunt

Tell your aunt you'll be just too happy to provide a reference for her in the future.

What you don't necessarily have to tell her at the time is this: A bad reference.

Tell them to put her on their Do Not Call List, and if they don't you will contact The State Attorney General.

That is basically what I wanted to know. I didn't know if the Do Not Call list works in this case or if it was just for telemarketers.

I do want to let my aunt have a peace of my mind (I'm not a fan of hers) but my grandmother wants peace and I don't want to upset my grandmother. I know my aunt would make a big deal of it.

My aunt sponges of the family and gets away with it because of her son. My grandmother doesn't want to punish him because of his mom.

It's a catch 22 for her.

Once they are told not to call that number, they can't.

I have a friend that was being harrassed also, with a debt collector.Many calls threw out the week they recieved.This person explained they were layed off.And was sincere they would take care of debt.The bill collector was getting so nasty.What we did is,left a new message on the phone in my voice,not his saying we are unable to take call.With the incoming number showing,we listed with 3 'x infront.So when the number showed again,they didn't answer.(and yes they use more then 1 number.(they used 4)
Not that is is correct way of handling it , but it did work.Been guessing 7 months no more calls.

Contacting a third party to collect a debt that has not cosigned is illegal. Especially if the Aunt is not in residence. If your Grandmother writes a simple statement to the collection agency with copies to the credit beaurea saying "I am not So and so and she does not reside at this residence or have the right to receive mail or phone contact here. " They can not affect your Grandmother's credit rateing or be abusesive in any way. Because of her age the state has a special legal assistance program if she needs any assistance in stopping the collectors or the Aunt in playing monkey bussiness with her identity and address.

Not as drastic as many make it sound,
All granny has to say is
"you did not call me for a reference before giving her credit/ money.. so do not bother calling me now, I did not give my permission to be used as a reference"

If it is not her debt.. they have to stop calling.

This happened to me on the day my Grandmother passed away..they called wanting to know how to get hold of my Mom.
Needless to say.. I went a bit crazy on them and my Mom.

They never called again and my Mom never used me as a reference again.