Question: My phone rings nonstop with calls from a debt collector. Is this legal?
Answer: NO! Debt collectors cannot call you at all hours of the day. I just looked at a phone log that a client had that showed 6 calls in a row from a collector. That is a ridiculous number of calls in just a few minutes. They are clearly making her phone ring slowly to harass her.
But what was worse is that the calls were at 2:00am. She was receiving calls at all hours of the day and night. This is a clear debt collection violation.
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act states that the debt collector cannot call you at unreasonable times. We have it better in California. The law in California is that a debt collector cannot call you before 8am or after 9pm. This is written into the Rosenthal Act.
The best approach is to tell the debt collectors that you will only correspond with them in writing. Do not accept any phone calls from them. Put it in writing. And, of course, if they violate that, call an attorney.