A discharged creditor is still trying to collect. What do I do?

Why this happens at all

Discharged debts get sold in bulk to “zombie debt” buyers whose business model is betting you don’t know your rights: a letter, a call, a small “settlement offer” hoping you’ll pay something on a legally dead debt. Sometimes it’s sloppier than sinister: a creditor’s system never processed the bankruptcy notice. Either way the law doesn’t care much about their intent; the debt is dead, and collecting it is the violation.

The playbook

1. Don’t pay anything, and don’t agree to anything on the phone. Paying a discharged debt doesn’t revive it legally, but it funds the model and never ends the calls.
2. Answer once, with the paper. Reply in writing (or on the call, then confirm in writing): this debt was discharged in case number so-and-so, here’s the discharge order, cease collection. Keep every letter, voicemail, and screenshot from that point on; you’re building the record.
3. If it continues, call your bankruptcy attorney. This is the part people don’t know: the remedy for discharge violations is a contempt motion in the bankruptcy court, with actual damages, attorney fees, and sometimes punitive sanctions on the table, which is why many attorneys handle a former client’s discharge violation at no cost to you. A collector’s letter to you is an annoyance; your attorney’s letter to them, citing the injunction and the fee-shifting, tends to end things in one round.
4. If they’ve sued in state court, don’t ignore it (defaults are how dead debts win). The discharge is a complete defense, raise it, and the suit itself strengthens the contempt case.

The credit report version

The same zombie economics show up as reporting: a discharged debt listed with a balance, marked delinquent, or freshly re-dated. Discharged accounts must report as included in bankruptcy with a zero balance. Dispute in writing with the bureaus with the discharge order attached, and if a buyer keeps reporting a live balance after that, you likely have both a credit-reporting claim and a discharge violation, a paper trail attorneys like.

The bottom line

Post-discharge collection is the one debt problem where you hold every card: the debt is dead, the injunction is federal, the fees shift, and your old attorney has an incentive to help. Respond with paper, not payment, and let the order do its job.