Quote:
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Roxette,
I am an honest collector in the field of defaulted student loans. You just posted that all the above activities are "illegal" when in fact they are not. First off, we do not earn "huge commissions", we are doing our jobs, trying to help debtors and recover lost funds to our clients. It has nothing to do with commissions. What we do recieve, is a bonus for rehabilitating a set number of loans. That's right, we get borrowers on monthly payment plans, we get a bonus FROM THE CLIENT not from the debtors.
The reason why urgency is pitched is because interest is accruing daily and speaking on behalf of the client, THEY are not going to wait! If it were up to the collectors, we have all the time in the world, but we are trying to help borrowers whether or not they appreciate it.
As far as places of employment and references are concerned, they are REQUIRED information on loan applications, and yes we are required to keep debtors in reach in order to recover funds. This is not to trap them, that remark offends me.
As far as credit goes, I have found some debtors that have superb credit, they just misplaced their student loan! It is not up to the collector to contact the credit reporting agency, it's the original creditor who does so and collections does not necessarily mean ruined credit! As for "threats", interest accrual, wage garnishment, litigation, and suspension of professional license are the extent of it and they do happen.
According to fdcpa law, collectors are legally allowed to contact borrowers twice a week at home and twice a month at work, unless of course the cease communication letter arrives which rarely happens because good collectors build respectful rapport with debtors for the express purpose of HELPING THEM!
As for the social security number, it was required information on the loan application or credit card application and therefore collectors already have it. It is used solely as an identifier for privacy purposes. Also, where I come from, collectors cannot access the pay-by-phone checking account information unless they are on the phone with the respective debtor. It is this way because the information including account numbers and payment dates have to be verified each time by the debtor with a collection manager. The collection managers have password to the pay-by-phone window to prevent unauthorized checking account transactions, after all, when we rehabilitate a loan, we DO NOT want any checks to bounce!
Wage garnishment is only 15%.
Finally, "forcing" a collection agency to accept $10 a month on a defaulted student loan is just ludicrous. It does nothing to slow interest accrual, it's a shot to the foot. Collectors who specialize in defaulted student loans, myself for instance, are more than ready to set up reasonable and affordable loan rehabilitations. We enjoy rehabilitating loans that particular payment plan does more to benefit all three parties (debtor, creditor, collector) than a balance in full or compromise. When a loan is rehabilitated, it benefits the borrower by helping them improve their credit. It benefits the creditor by getting them a return on their investment, and it benefits the collector by showing that we are doing our jobs and we are reasonable with borrowers.
In the future, Roxette, please get your facts straight before you go and tell all these unsuspecting borrowers to tell the collector off, stay in debt, and shoot themselves in the foot.
Regards,
Ari
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Ari, You say its ok for credit agencies to call twice a week, at home and twice a month at work. Well if in the real world that was the only time they called that would be fine, would not have a problem with that. However, I have ENCORE calling my home 28 times in 1 DAY!!! From about 7am to 10PM, thats a little much, dont ya think?! Then when I answer no ones on the phone or they have a recording of who they are trying to reach and when you get connected they automatically put you on hold, and will leave you there anywhere between 5 mins to 38 mins, which by that time I'm obviously not in the mood to speak to anyone and if I do speak with them I definitely would say its not politely especially when they get rude with me when I ask who they are and what's the reason they are calling, and in our state they CAN disclose that information to a spouse. We are not choosing
not to pay our bills WE CANT. We have NO money. Recently my husband was laid off due to cut backs, thankfully he got back to work. Although he has to drive over 80 miles a day 6 days a week because that is the only place he can hold a job with his seniority, on top of working 10-12 hours regular a day, that is not even over time. at a job that he has worked at for almost 7 years. He doesn't drive a big vehicle either, standard Chevy S10 and we have to put gas in it every other day at anywhere between $2.43-$4.58 a gallon. Oh did I fail to mention that uncle Sam takes over half of his gross income? I lost my job because of the same reason he was laid off for, although since we weren't part of a union like he is I wasted 8 years of my life. I am trying to find a job, even spent 300 bucks we really didnt have for a STNA course thinking that I'd have no problem finding a job that requires you to wipe butts all day, but I was wrong. We have two children, my 5 year old son (who's sperm donor doesn't pay child support "because he's sick of money hungry ******* lookin for a hand out" and the state is limited with what they can do.) and his 10 year old daughter that he pays over 300 a month in child support for (no arrearages). So, it's not that we want to stiff anyone as another Anonymous Guest put it, we just dont have it to give. I'm sorry but when he gets paid and it comes between paying a collection agency or buying food for our babies, making our late house payment, paying our utilities so we can have water, gas and electric we definitely choose not to pay the collections agency.
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