Best solution ever to collections calls...

[mb10240]

Pretty much two days after my first late credit card bill EVER, I started getting collections calls... nonstop and at odd hours (Bank of America's been calling at 11 at night), so I came up with a novel solution.

It requires:
a) a home phone that has a "call forwarding" feature.
b) a Google Voice account (free!)
c) potentially a cell phone if you want to be able to answer normal calls that come in

Set up the home phone to forward to your Google Voice number. Setup Google Voice so that all unknown callers (this isn't just "Unknown" or "Blocked" numbers -- anybody that's not in your address book with Google will be required to ID) are required to identify themselves. Optionally, set up Google Voice to forward calls to your cell phone.

When callers don't identify themselves, as many creditors refuse to do, the phone won't even ring. If they do ID themselves, your cell phone will ring and you'll be given the option to "answer," "send to voicemail & listen in," or my personal favorite, "answer and record."

It has completely stopped the collections calls for me!

[wnguyen]

I knew of your solution too late, but thanks for sharing. It's pretty nice though.

[DebtHater]

Here's a better solution, answer the phone at 11PM, advise them that the are violating federal law and you will report them to the Federal Trade Commission and your state's attorney general's office. Then sue them.

[october99]

I have quite a few that are going to a google voice number and they never leave messages.

But some do have my mobile number. So if you have a smart phone you can download the app called call control. I have it setup so that it picks up the collection calls and immediately hangs up on them. It's stopped some of them from calling the number altogether.

You can also save the numbers into your address book and set the ring type to silent. I did this for a bit before I got tired of the VM messages and decided to go with the call control app.

I also have a voip phone at home and I turn it to automatically go to vm. We only use it for outgoing calls anyway. F&F call on our cell.

[Okieblue]

I can't take the calls anymore, I am home all day, I answer them, tell them the same old thing, they call back 2 hours later, they've all been nice, but still, I am on the edge here. We don't have call forwarding or caller ID. I'm considering just dumping the home phone.