Consumer Law

Psycho Dialing By Debt Collectors - What Is It?

By M. Stan Herring

Have you ever wondered why a collector was calling five or six times a day? Sometimes one right after the other so you get 3-4 calls in 20 minutes?

As you know, the purpose is to harass you into paying. What you may not know is that the collection industry has a term for this - it is known as "psycho dialing". Cute, huh?

The idea is to call you enough to either drive you crazy or make you think (perhaps with good reason) that the collection agency is crazy. Either way, the idea is that you will pay money to the collector to "stop the insanity" (to borrow from the diet lady in the 80s).

We are going through an analysis of the FDCPA and you will see that even though the FDCPA was drafted over 30 years ago, it contemplated debt collectors going crazy and calling non stop. This will be discussed when we get to Section 1692d(5) "Causing a telephone to ring . . . repeatedly or continuously with intent to annoy, abuse, or harass any person at the called number."

So, if you are dealing with a collector and you are thinking "This guy has to be nuts" you might be right - or at least right that the collection agency is using "pyscho dialing" on you.

If you have further questions or concerns, feel free to contact us through our website or by calling 205-879-2447.

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Full post as published by Alabama Consumer Blog on March 15, 2010 (boomark / email).