CHARLOTTE — A growing number of people are finding themselves living paycheck to paycheck right now. Due to the ongoing government shutdown, many are going without paychecks altogether.
Consumer debt is at an all-time high, and along with it, a surge in complaints about aggressive debt collectors, but there are things you should know before you answer the phone.
Sam Brashears works from home as an appointment scheduler, but she says there was about a decade when she struggled to make ends meet.
“I was living paycheck to paycheck,” she said. “Everything that wasn’t the daily bills, like the rent and electricity, it all went on the card.”
At one point, she had $40,000 in debt on five cards. Then came some unexpected medical bills, so she set up a payment plan, but she missed one payment.
“They immediately sent it to collections, and I started getting the calls,” Brashears said.
Thomas Nitzche is with Money Management International, a nonprofit debt counseling service. MMI sees plenty of calls whose debt has been sold to a third-party collection agency.
“The collectors are financially incentivized, you know, bonus to collect on the debt to recover as much as they can, so they are typically more aggressive,” Nitzche said.
Debt collectors have to abide by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. That means they can’t call before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. or more than seven times in a week. They can’t show up on your doorstep, and they can’t tell family members or coworkers about your debt.
Credit counselors helped Brashears negotiate lower rates on her credit cards. So far, she’s cut her debt in half. She says she should be able to pay off her debt in the next two-to-three years.
Action 9 Attorney Jason Stoogenke says a debt collector has to be able to tell you these four things:
- How much you owe
- The name of the creditor you owe
- How to get the name of the original creditor
- What to do if you think there’s a mistake
If they won’t give you that information, report them to the Federal Trade Commission.
VIDEO: ‘Little over 30K’: A nonprofit that can help you erase credit card debt
©2025 Cox Media Group
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/LH3JSJEF3VBLRJLJQESEAG34AM.png)
