Collection agencies now chasing the dead

There is nothing worse than receiving letters from a collection agency after your mother passes away. The morons at Bell couldn't wait until a liquidator was appointed for my mother's estate, so they sicked a collection agency to harrass me for $240. Way add insult to injury.

They should be non-existent collection agenies that is.......

I am a terrible sinner and am sure to go to hell for mysins andebts. When I die, the collector should feel free to come there to see me and we can settle the debt there. My relatives will be instructed to tell them to go there.

It amazes me people's attitude toward their debt. You bought it, you spent it... pay it back. This attitude that catch me if you can, it is no wonder the world is the way it is. Debt collectors are people too and we pay our bills (at least I do)... As for chasing the dead, if I find out someone is deceased, I ask for a death certificate and have the account removed. Not a problem. Know what you are talking about before you comment and not all debt collectors are the same. I have been sworn at, threatened and on and on and then I go home to my family and try to forget my day until the next morning and that people are so rude. They have their children lie and hang up on me. What are you teaching your children? What is your child's attitude going to be towards debts when and IF they get a job? It doesn't take a genius to figure it out.

We had the debt collector actually call my neighbour looking for information about us.
We fully intended to pay off our debts, and then I got sick and lost my job. We had no choice after that except to declare bankruptcy, but even that didn't stop the harassing phone calls. There are times and circumstances that make it impossible for one to pay back what one owes. I was bedridden for almost a year, and to have to deal with those phone calls made my illness worse. Eventually we had to ask our trustee to intervene and put a stop to the persistent debt collector.
I understand they have a job to do, but threatening the person in debt is unforgivable. I won't name the company that persisted in hounding us, even after we went bankrupt, but I have not set foot in that place since, nor will I ever.
As for our children, after watching what we went through, they do pay their bills. We never used them to lie for us, but I don't blame any parent for doing that. We now have an unlisted phone number that only trusted family members have. At the time this all transpired we had 2 choices, pay for my very expensive medical treatment, or pay off our credit card debts. Since that time, we have refused to get a credit card from any company. Now if we don't have the cash, we do without.

I have no credit card debt fourtunately. However, my mother did when she passed away recently and shortly after I received a call from a collection person asking "who was going to take over the account now". I told him he was free to take it over if he wanted but I wasnt going to. He then settled down and asked for a copy of the death certificate which I sent him and that was that.

You do have rights as a consumer, even if it is debt problems. A collection company CAN NOT harrass you or lie to you. If they start calling and sending threatening letters, document ALL calls, keep all letters, and names. They can be reported to the Consumer Protection agencies and be put under review if they are using unethical practices. I know this for a fact because I have done it.

Unbelievable. My husband died a year ago, an one particular creditor continues to call on a regular basis. Even though the debt was incurred (automatic renewal) after the date of death. I sent every piece of documentation i could get my hands on, yet they still call. I told them i would be reporting them to their professional association if hear from them again; we'll see how that goes. One other creditor (car leasing company) had so many departments, that they didnt seem to be able to talk to each other. the car was returned, but they called for payments for many months. When it was finally settled after sending multiple copies of the death certificate and documents proving the return of the car...I started receiving calls from them wanting to know if my husband would like to lease another vehicle...

What people need to understand is: Educate yourself. Learn what the collection laws are for individual provinces or states. I know in BC, Canada they cannot lie, threaten, mislead ect..if they call once bankrupt that is a breach of BC Collection Law. It amazes me how many people can stand there and judge and say "You bought it, you spent it... pay it back" Do you know what each individual circumstance is? No!! In this economy people are losing jobs, homes, everything. It is no wonder that people in Canada are going bankrupt at an alarming rate. We are different from the US though. There you can go bankrupt as aften as you like, in Canada the rules are much stricter. This is not something people go into lightly. This has a lasting effect for alot of people. I for one have experienced collection calls as well as being the collector. Neither one is easy. I teach my kids that there are wants & needs . I also teach them which are the priority.
Just remember before you judge, it could be you one day.

after my mother passed in early feb., some bill collectors just requested a death cert and that was that, like someone already said.... but a few received trhe same cert., but did not stop.. in fact they got worse, namely 'collection agency's'... so i did some digging and found out that independant collection agencies look for and 'buy' bad dept from banks and credit card companys for pennies on the hundreds and thousands... most of these depts are already claimed on insurance by the lender... and paid out at less than 100%, thus allowing the lender to sell the remainder for very little... then i find out that the collection agency trys to get as much of the original loan as possible... the money they do collect, they keep for themselves... the original lender never sees a cent . so, in essence, dept collectors really are scum suckin bottom feeders... feeding thier children off the pain and misery of other people.

Why should anyone, other than guarantors, have to answer to these collection agencies? If the dead beat will not pay his debts, then let them sue, jail or whatever punishment is available to them, to settle their file. They have no mandate or reasons to pursue, relatives, parents or children. Why, in fact should the next of kin on an intestate deceased, be harrased by Collection agencies?... Such an agency was turned off, in its attempts, when told in no uncertain terms to sue the person they were harrasing, other than the debtor, and threathened with a harrassement suit if they ever called again.

Maybe it is time the collection agencies and credit rating organizations should never EXIST in the first place. Maybe it is time businesses and utilities companies should do the chasing THEMSELVES instead of wasting cash on pointless and useless collection companies to go after the DEAD.

Bell Canada is the worst company I have ever dealt with when trying to settle an estate. The receiver was returned to them in Nov. after my daughter's death and they acknowledged that but was being billed still in April or May of the next year. At one point, the service person said if I knew my daughter's password she could help me. Just about toexplode, I managed to utter, "Wizard" which was her cat's name. The the service person said, "How can I help you Mrs. Robertson?" I got more flack after that, and I finally asked them if they could please tell me where my daughter was watching TV as I would love to see her again. All this to a customer who was paid in full in November.

I would agree with the comments about Bell Canada...
I switched cellular companies, but kept my original phone number. Seeing as the same phone number cannot be registered twice, whether with another company or induividual, didn't seem to stop Bell Canada fro continuing to bill me monthly for a service theu no longer provided.
After several lenghty conversation, always with a different rep or superisor that had no knowledge of the previous calls, I finally gave up and paid the fraudulently post bills just to have peace of mind and be done with it.
Perhaps it's time consumers took maters into thier own hands and begin filing class action litigqtion against such companies. Perhaps hitting them where it hurts the most (the wallet) would temporarialy make them think twice.

Its very easy to get rid of collectors....all you have to do is get Bell's call blocking feature and block the numbers out every time the collector calls. It's a very simple solution to a very annoying problem...I did it back in 2005 and I never got a call from a collection agency ever again...It's as simple as that...

When I first read this I was angry how dare they try and go after family member that are grieving. One of the stages of grieving is anger. The family members should tell the collection agency to go F themselves. When my mom past away I had a phone call from a retail store asking for my mom and I told them she wasn't here and the next question do you know where we can reach her and I said ya the cemetary because she died. Yes a smart mouth but I couldn't resist. As for Bell I have ran across the collection agency that took over the bill, they kept calling my contact person. So when I finally was able to get a hold of the agency I told them to stop calling my contact before I got my head cut off because my contact was getting real mad and they did stop calling my contact person. But this collection agency was very pleasant about the situation that I was going through.We came up with a payment plan to what I could afford. So there are collection agency out there that understand and will not harass.

It's a good and nice blog.
Thanks.