A word of advice to anyone who is irritated by those commenters that say "Just pay your bill on time and they won't have to call you."  Haven't you ever wondered why they would be on this website?  This is for people who are getting irritiating phone calls.

I'll tell you why.  These are the schmoes who WORK for the collection agencies, in crappy jobs because they can't anything that requires a skill.

Don't let them get under your skin.  Their are dozens of reasons why a payment may be late.  The creditors are allowed to do what they want, which is charge you a late fee and/or harrass you (to a point).  You are not low-lifes for being behind in payments.  You're just having a hard time, and other things (like eating and shelter) are more important.  Pay them what ever you can, when you can, let them charge their late-fees, get yourself a call blocking system, or a call-forwarding system (I've heard of people who have their collection calls forwarded to other collection agencies!), and do what you need to do to survive. It's the American way.  But unlike the AIG's and the GM's, We The People are not too big to fail, so no bailout is coming our way.  By the way, great idea to bail out AIG...now they are suing the U.S. for having unfair credit practices!

As for you clowns that get on this website to leave your "Pay up and shut up." messages:  why don't you get a real job, instead of working for the most sleazy industry in the world:collection agencies?   Did you know that a collection agency, on average, pays about 1/50th for the debt they buy?  Then they hire people who get their rocks off annoying other people.  Again, why don't you get a real job?  I hear Mickey D's is looking for people for the French Frying Legion.  The only requisite:  you must be able to say, "Did you want fries with that?"