Your phone won’t stop ringing and you’re having nightmares about the nasally voice of the debt collector. You want to discuss charges you’re seeing on a loan that you have no memory of agreeing to, but the customer service agents just put you on hold until you hang up. Or you paid in full but the bill keeps coming every month with more late charges tacked on.

These scenarios might make you want to just ignore the debt collectors and swear off loans forever, but that won’t help you resolve your dispute and move on. What can you do to get through to a creditor and get to the bottom of your problem, or at least report the issues that you’ve had?

Here are a few suggestions:

• Don’t ignore debt collectors. Unless you address their claim and either work out a plan to settle your debt or prove that there is a mistake, the company your debt is owed to can continue to approach you and even take further action if you do not respond.
• Find out your rights. The Federal Trade Commission provides a number of helpful resources explaining your rights in dealing with debt collectors and actions you may be able to take to improve your situation.
• Have a strategy for negotiating that includes tactics you can plan ahead to stay calm and in control of the personal information you provide, to determine realistic terms you can agree to, and to get a written record of everything.
• Carefully consider whether you would rather try to negotiate your debt yourself or find a trustworthy debt negotiation company to help you.
• If you do find that debt collectors are crossing the line into harassment and you believe they may be violating your rights, you can file a complaint by reporting them to your state attorney general’s office and to the Federal Trade Commission.

Whatever you decide to do about your debt, it’s important to do something. The longer you wait, the more you’ll hear from that nasally-voiced debt collector, or worse, the court system in which they’ve decided to take further legal action.