How to Deal with Collection Agencies

If you haven’t made regular payments to one or more of your creditors, they may choose to hand your account over to a collection agency. A collection agency will contact you to obtain payment of the account for your creditor.

Calls from collection agencies can be disturbing, but agencies do have to follow rules. While these rules may vary from province to province, in general agencies must do the following:

• A collection agency must notify you, in writing, at your last known address, that your account has been assigned to them for collection.
• Must notify you and get your creditor’s written permission to take any legal action to collect a debt.
• Must stick to provincial guidelines for calling time and frequency, and may not make calls that may be considered harassing to you and your family.
• A collection agency cannot give false or misleading information to any person that could damage you or your family.
• Collection agencies can’t call your friends, employer, relatives or neighbours other than to get your phone number and address.
• An agency must clearly identify themselves, who they work for, and how much money is owed.

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