How Do You Know Whether a Debt Collector’s Calls are Harassment?

How much is too much?  Unfortunately, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and its Florida counterpart do not specify a particular number of calls per day that a creditor can make when trying to collect a debt.

An older Florida case is somewhat illustrative in finding the answer.  In Story v. J.M. Fields, Inc., 343 So. 2d 675, 677 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977), the Court looked at what conduct was considered harassing, such as:  a) the frequency of the creditor’s calls; b) the number of calls; c) the time of day when calls were received (whether during normal business hours); and d) whether the purpose of the calls was appropriate, such as calling to i) remind the debtor of the debt; ii) determine the reasons for non-payment; iii) discuss a plan for making payments.

My rule of thumb that I like to use is if a creditor calls in the morning and talks with you, and then calls again the same day, that only works if you said something like I may get paid at lunchtime and might have some money for you.  Otherwise, I doubt that anything changed that day and there was no reasonable reason for a second call the same day other than to harass you.

If you are receiving debt collection calls and have some questions about what to do, whether you should settle or file bankruptcy, please consider giving us a call – for future information please see our website at Christiearkovich.com.