My guess is a collector doesn't make much money. But today I had a super long chat with a collector today and she said that things are changing almost daily. Now capital one's objective is to get people back on track somehow and reinstate their card. I said are you kidding me? I don't want the card anymore. She kept pushing that I would need to re-establish credit once this painful period was over. I asked why would they want me - I'm 144 days past due. She said that the investors make money off people like me and it is more expensive to find new customers later than to help the bad customers become good. She said I had always paid my bills on time unatil recently so therefore I was labeled a good customer - one they wanted to keep.
She said everyone is put into a bucket based on past history. People that always paid timely until recently, those that were late only occassionally and those that were late a lot. So they want to keep the never lates and the occassionally lates but are willing to settle with the lots late people. I said that wasn't fair that I am trying to settle my account as a good customer and they are actually giving a better deal to someone who may have never intended to pay the debt back? She said that could very well be. Ugghh!
She also said that they are a little ticked at B of A because they are settling so low and people who have settled with them are calling in and getting angry that Cap One won't settle. she said it was because they are holding the debts themselves and not selling them off. B of A sells them off so it is more profitable for them to settle, but Cap One and Chase are holding them so their losses are not as large if they can collect later when the problem causing the default may have gone away. Like someone getting a job again or going back to work after an illness.
I told her I wanted a 30% settlement and I could do it today. She said she would personally call me when the system said I was eligible for that. She said she has been doing this 10 years and they no longer have much leeway when talking to clients - they can only do what the system says they can do. She gave me her name and number and that she made some notes in the system. I hoping she knows the trigger words to get me that settlement before charge off. I told her I wasn't afraid of the charge off.
sorry for the long post. Hope this is maybe helpful - who knows how truthful it is - it's from the mouth of a collector but she was very fasinating. I'll definately call her again next week after the 150 day mark and see what she can do for me.
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