It is common nowadays that many businesses both small and big are hiring third-party debt collectors. These companies are the ones who collect the debts on your behalf and of the company you owned. Because you are not directly involved in collecting the debt, you are naturally unaware of how they collect the debt.
In an ordinary manner, you might know which debt collection agency out there that you owe because they have called, sent you letters or they have listed the account on your credit report. However, there may be some instances where you might learn that you have an account in collections, but you are not aware which collection agency has the debt.
To help you out, here are some effective ways of finding out which collection agencies or Debt Collectors you owe.
- Ask information from the original creditor– If you happen to know your debt has been sent to a particular collection agency, you can certainly find out which collection agency you are owed with by calling the original creditor. The business that you originally that you had an account with should be the one you will be contacting. This is because they are the ones who hired the debt collection agency in the first place and assign them to collect debts.
- Get an update of your credit report– Another effective way is to find out which debt collection agency you owe is by checking your credit reports. The majority of debt collection agencies report the debts to the credit bureaus, so you can certainly find the name and the phone number of the collection agencies based on the most recent copy of your credit report. There is no other way to determine if a particular collection agency has reported your debt to a single credit bureau or all of the three, so you have to check your credit report.
- Check your caller ID or your voicemail– If you missed picking up the calls in your office or at your house, maybe you have to check the caller ID or your voicemail because chances are, the debt collection agency staff have already called your contact numbers several times. In this way, you can determine the company name of the debt collection agency based on the contact numbers that are recorded in either your caller ID or your voicemail.
- Wait for them to contact you again– One of the best and most effective ways is to wait for them to contact you again and make sure you are there to pick up their call and ask them what is the name of their company, their base of operations and their client that assigned them to collect debts.