How Bill Collectors Find You

This may or may not apply to you but it's good information to have whatever your personal financial situation.

1. The bill collector will send you several collection letters. Each will include the words "Address Correction Requested" on the upper left front of the envelope. If you have filed a change of address form with the local postmaster, a note to that effect will be sent back to the bill collector who will then pursue you at your new address. If you didn't bother to file a notice, his mail will just be returned stamped "address unknown" or "addressee not at this address".

If you want to move and leave your debts behind, when you're ready to leave town, go to the post office and fill out a change of address form listing your address as some hotel in a far off foreign location like the Caribbean island of Nevis (famous for it's absolute financial privacy). No U.S. bill collector ever got a dime out of anyone on that island.

Keep in mind that our illustrious postal service is anything but efficient so undelivered mail may or may not actually be returned.

If it's delivered to the wrong person it may just end up in their weekly trash.

2. If there's no response, he'll attempt to call your home phone number. If the number rings but is not answered he will check back later. But if the number is disconnected he'll know that you're either dead or activity seeking to evade him. He will then "release the hounds".

He will know that you are now fair game. From here on out the determining factor will be the amount of money you owe. A bill collector's time is valuable so he can't waste it on small debts that are unlikely to be yield fruit. But if your debt is over a grand you can bet he'll take it to the next level and keep pushing. And if your debt is in the five grand category, he'll chase you to the ends of the earth.

3. Next step is directory assistance. If you are not listed he'll look for other locals who share your last name hoping he'll find a family member who he can trick into revealing your whereabouts. If you live in a larger community and or have a rare or common last name (rare names can't be easily found and common names like "Miller" are too numerous to bother with), he'll come up empty.

4. If he knows you have lived in some other area of the country in the past, he'll contact directory assistance in that area. He will look at the first three digits of your social security number and check out the large cities in the state in which your social security card was initially issued.

5. If he has no luck, next stop is a call to those friendly folks down at your local library. They have several different "Criss-cross" guides which will give him the name and employer of anyone living at your address. This works well for single family houses but is of little use in high-rise apartments where the turnover is high. Also, much of this information is out of date.

6. If the Criss-cross directory provided him with the name of your employer he'll go back to directory assistance for their number. Here's an important tip. If this clicks and he gets your work phone - you're dead meat (unless you are willing to change jobs).

Once he has this number he knows where you will be each day during working hours. He also knows how to get you on the phone any time he wants. He can also pester your co-workers (which is illegal in most areas) which may frighten you into paying up. He may threaten to force your employer to extract payments from your paycheck.

If you are no longer employed there the next place to look is the local tax records clerk. Here he can get the name of the owner of your home - and that's you (if you own the house) or worse yet - your landlord. And landlords are famous for freely sharing any information they have with anyone who asks. So tell your landlord as little as possible.

7. As a last resort they will get a copy of your credit report. The more aggressive ones will call your other creditors to see if they will share any info they have on your whereabouts.

If none of this works, he will send you a series of a dozen or so standard collection letters and then abandon your account as uncollectible.