People like supercollector up there have NO CLUE how to handle people. Your interpersonal skills, sir, are pathetic. If you don't treat others with respect, how can you expect them to treat you with respect?
One debt collector, when I answered the phone, accused me of going by an alias -- when it's the name I've gone by since I was in junior high school -- which is LONG before I ever had credit. These people are just plain [***] for the most part -- and I refuse to work with people like that. Send me rare polite debt collector and I'll do my best to work with them and get things paid off. Ever heard of the expression you get more flies with honey than vinegar? Learn it, Know it, Live it!
You don't know people's situations. My own situation... my car broke down. My parents talked me into getting a new car that I really could just barely afford (I DID pay the car off), but while paying on it, I lost my job -- completely OUT of my control, layed off. I scrimped and all my credit card debt piled up. See, I already had credit card debt from college. These companies (which are the biggest money makers in the world, despite their pleas for help -- when others need help much more) prey on the young and unknowing, tricking them into thinking they need a credit card, tricking them into thinking they'll make good money when they get out of college, despite the fact not everyone does. Our society is way too materialistic for most people to responsibly handle credit cards. This is why we are a nation FILLED with debt. The credit card companies loan money to people they shouldn't -- EVERY SINGLE DAY. They increase credit limits when they shouldn't -- EVERY SINGLE DAY. It's a risk and is very akin to gambling. Credit cards are evil, point and simple. When you build up credit card debt, you become an indentured servant, which is illegal in MOST dignified countries.
I'm sorry, but someone working part-time for $6 an hour, should NOT qualify for a credit card. When the credit card companies issue cards to those people, it's their own fault for being STUPID and making bad RISKS. Take an Economics 101 class and learn the basics that the credit card companies have not learned.
Now...as per this caller... I don't owe them money. I filed bankruptcy 3 years ago because the debt grew too large until it was more money than I make in 3 years (so, no... I didn't have the money to pay off the debt.) I never intentionally ran it up without intent to pay. But bad things happen to good people. My credit is shot. It's a hard lesson to learn. Now, I keep most of my debts up to date. I only have one past due balance and I have been paying some on that one but I'm behind right now because things have been tight. There are unexpected bills, like your cell phone gets knocked into a lake and now you have to come up with $500 to cover the deposit and the fee for the phone. So, for 3 months, I've been without a phone and can't call them (their number was on the phone) -- but it wasn't Niagara so I don't know why Niagara is calling me. I received no contact via mail from either of these companies notifying me of any change in the collection process on my one past due bill.
Or maybe you could use your brain and realize that in some cases they are harassing the wrong person. But nope using your brain would be asking too much now wouldn't it? I'm getting these calls and i live nowhere, read that, NOWHERE, near Buffalo.
Wow supercollector you must have a brain the size of a peanut. Wait that's being too generous. I get calls from these people, yet I have never been in debt. So apparently just because they call and try to harass me I'm a theif? Wow way to really think this one through. And supercollector, a collections agent isn't a real job. It's a sad pathetic excuse for a job that someone who has not otherwise discernable skills has to do.
You are NOT responsible for ANY debts that are more than SEVEN [ 7 ] years old or older. They are trying to collect on an old debt that was sold to their company by the original company that you owed the money to. That company sold the debt because they knew that they could no longer collect on it.... and that was a way for them to get a little bit of money. The new owner of the " debt information " will harass the hell out of you to try to squeeze as much money of the original debt from you, so they can make their money back. Laugh at them and tell them to go to hell.
What a jerk YOU are, 'Supercollector'. I got a dozen phone calls from this agency to my number, which I've had for OVER 20 years, and, I've NEVER heard of the person they are 'looking for', because they do a half assed job of 'looking for' and just dial away as a bonehead 'skip tracer'. They couldn't skiptrace if their lives depended on it. If so, they'd not be dialing private law enforcement numbers looking for people who don't exist and using 'scare' tactics and 'pushy voices' when they call them. A big KUDOS to the LOSERS at Niagara Credit ... SCORE 1 FOR THE OTHER TEAM. I love it when you all are such idiots that you give me enough to have the FCC formally investigate the abuse!
How about when they are not even looking for you? When they are looking for someone you've NEVER heard of and you've had your number for over two decades? THEN they keep calling you a LIAR. Woe be to them. My pleasure to introduce the two, as well.