Confused by a phonecall

[*LittleMissSummer*]

I just got off the phone after having a very weird conversation with a lady.. this is how it went:

*phone ringing*

Me: Hello?

*lots of background noise* Uhh.. Hi is Michael home?

Me: No hes at work, can i take a message?

Lady: My name is Julie and i need to speak to him, is there anyway i can get in contact with him?

Me: Yep, i have his mobile number...

Julie: Can i have it please? I really need to speak to him about an important issue

Me: Sure.. can i ask what it is regarding?

Julie: Umm, i don't think i have authority to speak to you about it, i am guessing this is Jacinta?

Me: Yes i'm she, also where are you calling from..?

Julie: Give me a minute ill have a look through the account and see if i can talk to you about this.....your name is here but there is no where saying i can talk to you..

*goes quiet while whispering to herself*

Julie: Yep i need to speak to him so can i get his mobile number please?

Me: Ok then, **** *** ***

Julie: So is he working at Dan Murphys still?

Me: Um, no hes not he left there a little while ago.

*goes on for a few mins chatting about his work*

Julie: Ok thanks sweetie i will give him a call and sort this matter out, have a nice day

*hang up phone*

I'm just confused that if im on the account why she couldn't talk to me, she couldn't even tell me what company shes from or give me a number to pass on to him.


I called him straight after i hung up and he has no idea who this Julie person is and doesn't know what it could be about, Hes also a little peeved i gave her his number and told her where he works.

Does this sound like a normal call from a debt collector??

[Charlotte91]

Hmmm, sounds odd. When I get phone calls like that, I usually just say he's unavailable and get a contact number or tell them to ring back later.
I get calls like that looking for our mate, he's lived here a few times.

I get weird phone calls from the blood bank. DH is O-, so they really want his blood (lol). I usually get "Is Jeremy there?" .... "No, he's--" "Never mind, I'll ring him on his mobile" and they hang up in my ear. Joke is on them. DH doesn't get mobile reception at work. It really annoys me.

Honestly, it does sound like a debt collector.
Mum used to get calls like that from the credit card people.

[Novella]

Sounds like a debt collector to me

I never give out numbers or confirm identity on calls that are unsolicited. I either ignore them or get a number and call back

We always pay our bills on time however when we built our house this year the builder opened an account in our name for the electricity while the building was underway. However they did not give the company our correct address and so I had multiple calls asking me to return a call to a 1300 number. I ingored it for months thinking it was a scam. One day I finally called them back and it was for the electricity account we never recieved!!!!

Good luck

[*LittleMissSummer*]

In hindsight i wish i hadnt given out his details and just hung up like i usually do. But also at the same time he often "forgets" to tell me about issues regarding our finances.

[beansbeans!]

Sounds dodgy to me, but Im not so sure its a debt collector. Buts thats because I assume that they only have the account holder's name, the company the debt is with and the total of the debt, and no other detail.

But if I had gotten that phone call I wouldnt have given out DH's mobile number. I find it strange that she didnt say what company she was calling from and from what you've written was very vague about details. Also normally if you say they are not there, they will give you a number to return the call.

There is something dodgy about it though. Hopefully he can give you an answer when he gets home as to what it was about.

[AnyDream]

Yeah I would've told them I wasn't giving them his number but they were welcome to leave their phone number for him to call them back. If they don't want to do that then pooey to them.

You'll find out soon enough I suppose.

[Traveller]

Sounds like a debt collector or someone to me. I wouldn't have given out the phone number though, I would have offered to take a number and reference and got him to call back and if they refused I would have said "well it can't be that important then so you'll just have to hope you catch him at home next time" or words to that effect.

[nothing2lose]

Sounds dodgy to me, but Im not so sure its a debt collector. Buts thats because I assume that they only have the account holder's name, the company the debt is with and the total of the debt, and no other detail.
But if I had gotten that phone call I wouldnt have given out DH's mobile number. I find it strange that she didnt say what company she was calling from and from what you've written was very vague about details. Also normally if you say they are not there, they will give you a number to return the call. There is something dodgy about it though. Hopefully he can give you an answer when he gets home as to what it was about.

A debt collector will have more details than name and address. They would likely have employment history, next of kin, etc because that would be on the credit file. They might not have said where they were from because, due to the Privacy Act, they can't disclose the debt to a third party. That would include a spouse.

[sloane]

A debt collector will have more details than name and address. They would likely have employment history, next of kin, etc because that would be on the credit file. They might not have said where they were from because, due to the Privacy Act, they can't disclose the debt to a third party. That would include a spouse.

yeah that ^ sounds like collections to me but is weird if you're on the account. if your name is on the account then they should be able to speak to you as well. does he have any accounts solely in his name?

[Teeki]

Sounds a bit dodgy to me - she really didn't sound prepared for the phone call! Working at a bank, before I call a customer, I make sure who I can speak to regarding the particular account, so that if someone other than the customer answers I know what I can & can't say. If I were her, and I was calling regarding an account in your DPs name only, I'd only have said "Hi, this is Kaytee from the bank (not giving the bank's name), is DP there?" If he wasn't there and I knew you weren't a signatory on this particular account, I'd leave a message with you for him to call me back. I usually have the customer's mobile number though, so I'd give that a go, but I wouldn't go asking you for info, and I definitely wouldn't say

Give me a minute ill have a look through the account and see if i can talk to you about this.....your name is here but there is no where saying i can talk to you..

And then have a little chat to myself about it! Because obviously that's going to bring up questions for you, and if this was a confidential thing for him she's kind of letting the cat out of the bag.

When your DP does speak to her, if it's something you're supposed to be talked to about (which you probably are seeing as your name's on the account) I'd get him to ask them to make you a signatory, and then ask her to be much more careful with giving out/obtaining info in future.

[beansbeans!]

A debt collector will have more details than name and address. They would likely have employment history, next of kin, etc because that would be on the credit file. They might not have said where they were from because, due to the Privacy Act, they can't disclose the debt to a third party. That would include a spouse.

I currently have a debt collector after me (long story, but we're not at fault thankfully) and they will tell Dh the name of the company, what it is about, etc when he asks before putting them onto me. We also had a debt collector years ago for an account in DH's name, who did the same, but they never had details on emplopyment details, or anything like that. they tried to get those details out of me, but never succeeded in that.
I still find it dodgy that they wont say the company name when LMS answered the phone.

[Me+him+bub]

could be centrelink or family assistance?

[indie24]

We get a few calls from debt collectors for my brother. They tend to go the way you described LMS. I always just ask for a name and number to pass on to him to call them back.
If they ask for more details I usually tell them that identity fraud is rife ATM so I will not give out details to someone I don't know

[*LittleMissSummer*]

could be centrelink or family assistance?

I don't think so, we are both on the account and ive called up in the past and they have talked to me about our payments.

Hmm, hopefully he took the call from her and i know what its regarding.

[beansbeans!]

LMS; just wondering if you found out what the phone call was about??

[*LittleMissSummer*]

He said it was a debt collector. I still don't understand the whole secrecy of who she was but oh well. Hopefully hes sorted it out and i wont get anymore weird phone calls.

[Teeki]

If it's a personal debt - in his name only - then it'd be a privacy issue to tell you anything. If you imagine yourself in that situation, with a debt that someone else doesn't know about and now you're being chased for it, you probably wouldn't want her giving details to anyone who answered the phone. Not saying that's what's happened in your situation, but yeah.

And if you are on the account, I don't get why she couldn't talk to you anyway!

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