Receiving intimidating letters from debt collectors and having them ring your phone off the hook day in and day out can frazzle anyone's nerves. But dealing with debt collectors is easier than you think because you have various forms of protection and many techniques available at your disposal.

Fortunately for the consumer the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act sets some guidelines for what debt collectors may or may not legally do when attempting to collect a debt. For example, they can't call before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., or threaten to garnish wages in states in which it's illegal. They also cannot harass you with continual phone calls if you tell them to stop.

[For the full text, see: http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcpa/fdcpact.htm#801]

You have several options when dealing with the debt collectors. For one you can simply refuse to take the call. Most answering machines allow screening your call before picking up and if you have caller ID/call blocking you may be able to filter the call out entirely.

If you do choose to pick up insist that they don’t contact you anymore. If you sent them a ‘cease and desist’ letter they will be legally obligated to stop calling. Of course, legal action of that kind can be expensive, so you may want to employ other techniques first.

Before trying any techniques on the debt collectors, you should consider actually paying the debt, if you can and if you actually owe it. After all you took out that debt, and the creditor is entitled to be paid. However, if you are seriously short of funds, you can couple this with negotiating for a reduced rate.

All you will have to do is follow up on your commitment and the phone calls will stop. Bill collectors, as unpleasant as they might be, are just performing a service for which they get paid. Once an agreement is in place, they will happily move on to others.

If you do make any agreements with the bill collectors make sure you get that in writing from them or at least record them over the phone. Read or listen to the agreement carefully and make sure everything is stated as you have agreed over the phone.

Note, if you've insisted that the debt collection agency stop calling you, especially if you've been called at work, you can tape the call if that's legal in your state. (Sometimes it requires notifying the other party that you are doing so.) If the debt collectors know they’re being recorded they will not make any statements that are out of line. Everything you record can be especially important when you have negotiated a reduction in debt and need to prove that the debt collectors agreed to your terms.

Majority of debt collectors have the authority to accept substantially less than they're asking for. But, since they get paid a percentage of what they collect, they're going to try to keep the amount as close to the original as possible. However, they will accept less if you continue on pressuring them. They know that 50% of $500 is better than 100% of nothing.

In making any agreement the debt collectors should agree not to put any black marks (beyond what may already be there) onto your credit report. You should take that one step further and insist they report quickly any payments you do make and to adjust any amount owed.

Get it in writing before you send anything more than a token of good faith payment. Sending some money to demonstrate the sincerity of your commitment to the agreement might be ok, but sending too much can have the bill collectors break the agreement. If they see that you can easily be manipulated this will give them little incentive to make the effort to comply with the binding terms of the agreement you both established.

In order to effectively negotiate with the credit collection agency maintain your calm, patience and realism when discussing all the terms. Doing so will make an inherently unpleasant situation less stressful and help you deal with your debt problems much easier.