Job Outlook for Collection Agents

If this is the case, then the govt should ensure that genuine and trained collectors are hired for recovering the consumer debts. Everyone must abide by the federal and state laws which is usually lacking in the collection industry. It's obvious that govt will be investing more funds in the collection industry, so they should make sure about leaving no loophole which gives the industry a bad name.

That's right, Steq. I'm not sure the point of this post.

Why oh why must they come here and bother our board?It serves them no useful purpose and you will find consumers are well educated here. You need to take yourself to insidearm.com since you seem to have gotten lost over here. :lol: :lol:

Buying old debt for pennies on the dollar and giving them to some untrained thug to collect is not what I would call a bright future for an industry. They should go be required through professional training in polite persuasion and the fdcpa before starting work.

They are trained. That is why they KNOW they are breaking the law whenever they open their mouths!

That's actually good to hear No Excuses, for me anyway. It means more collectors breaking the law, and more collectors to sue.

Yes they do need an extensive course in the federal debt collections practices act (fdcpa). :lol:

Maybe they wouldn't be putting themselves in such a vulnerable spot and harassing people over validation issues, and collecting only what is legally owed and not there ream fees! :twisted:

ladybug

Quote:

LOL, you know whenever I see articles about future in demand jobs and good jobs to have, collections is never mentioned. I wonder why, well lets see why shall we.

Well for one as your article states there is high turnover which means the pay is not good on average. Since no education is required to be a collector many positions will be filled by those who cannot hold a steady job and move from job to job, fast food job to fast food job, collection job back to fast food etc. Also the article mentions companies going overseas to save money, which means the quality of work suffers. This also means there is hardly any training at all since training costs money and companies are trying to save money.

So if you have no education, currently work for minimum wage, don't want to be bothered by being trained, the ability to go from one CA to another because they are desperate for a warm body then by all means become a collector.

Now I know there are some nice collectors out there and some of them make some good money and good for them, but being a collector is not something the average person aspires to be.

thank you ramj70 for be ing here and telling it legally like it really is!!!!!!

It is scary to thing how there is no official certification or training to be a debt collector, and that so many companies would hire untrained people! Not being trained in Fair Debt Collection can open so many companies up for liability! A $1,000 unpaid debt could easily turn into a $10,000 judgment against the creditor/collection company if the people they hire use illegal tactics to try to get people to pay!! Worse yet, as someone pointed out, what if the issue turns into a class action suit for millions of dollars! That is not good business, if you ask me! Have some of these people ever heard the adage that you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar? Sure, there are some people out there who are very rude to collectors. However, I think the majority just want to prove that the debt and/or the company claiming the debt are legit. The collector should not have issue with people asking for validation...they should just kindly provide it. At that point, I believe MOST people would be willing to work out a civil solution...I know I would! Had my OC not been so ugly to me in the beginning, we would have worked out a solution then. If these junk debt buyers who now "own" the debt wouldn't call and immediately try to strong-arm me by denying my rights to validation, I would be willing to work with them as well. Treating me like a second-class citizen for defaulting on my debt for reasons beyond my control is not going to make me pay up....especially when I do know my rights!

Now, to comment why this need for more collectors? Well, I'm sure you all have heard in the news about all these adjustable rate mortgages and increase in foreclosures. Problem is, people were not completely informed of, or naive to, what certain agreements meant down the road. Now, their affordable payments are skyrocketing to unaffordable payments....that $1000 house payment has now ballooned to $2000 or more, while their income has not gone up enough with the times! The seller's housing market is in a down-turn, so people cannot sell to get out of the mortgage. They end up in over their head...probably taking out other lines of credit to try to cover....things are getting ready to turn really ugly! Again, we are not talking about people who took out lines of credit with not intention of every paying. We are talking about people in real trouble, and in a way, they are victims! They were fed this idea of how great and affordable these options would be, and now they are realizing the hard way that there was a catch to it all!

You are so right about the housing! George W has a plan with the FHA to help people out but the problem there is that you have to have good credit. Who has good credit after a ballooning mortgage keeps you from paying your other bills while you are trying to keep your house?

EXACTLY! After I posted, in response to a lot of folks as of late blasting people for these unpaid debt, I had another (very real) scenario come to mind.

Let's say we have a single mom of 2 (ages 5 and 6), recently divorced, married young and was a stay-at home mom her entire marriage. After the divorce, she is lucky to get a job paying $12/hr as a receptionist. She is looking into financial aid to go to school to further her education. She pays $1,000/month rent on a run down 3 bedroom house -- cheap for her area (as her area has housing policies that say a landlord cannot rent anything smaller than a 3-bedroom to a person who has two kids of the opposite ****...these laws do exist, as they are in effect in my county...landlords pay heavy fines if they violate them). She drives a 10 year old minivan with over 100,000 miles, but, hey, it's paid for (she got it in the divorce agreement). Her ex isn't regular about his child support payments, and after taxes and insurance, she is lucky to bring home $400/wk. Luckily, her mother watches the kids for her so that she can work (which is why she can't move to an area with a lower cost of living). She is barely getting by, but makes too much money to qualify for any kind of public assistance. She has a credit card with a $500 credit limit for emergencies, and got a pretty good interest rate on it.

So, she gets in her van to take the kids to school and go to work one morning, and it will not start. Long story short, it will cost nearly $500 to fix! She is a little concerned, but uses her credit card to cover it, because she cannot get to and from work without her van! Her minimum payment ends up being about $20/month, with only about $10 of that going to the balance.

She does fine paying on time for awhile. A few months down the road, she has a completely crazy month, and forgets a payment (rent, utilities, and insurance are all on auto-pay, but she forgot to set this up for the credit card). We all have had one of these kinds of months...she is in school now, and had a bunch of studying for tests, the kids had the chickenpox back to back, she is still trying to cram in 40 hours a week at work, etc. It is one of those kinds of months when you are constantly asking, "What day is today?"

One day, she gets this call, "Did you forget your payment?" She is very apologetic and pays immediately via check by phone! However, something is happening that she is not aware of! See, because of her missed payment, her interest rate just shot up (and yes, there are companies out that that will shoot up your rate for one missed payment). The missed payment and the new interest applied to her account has her back really close to the limit, because her normal payment was not chipping away at the balance fast enough. Now, the credit card company applies the late fee, and guess what? She is also now over the limit and gets hit with an overlimit fee! She gets her statement, and for her next payment they are requiring that she pay her NEW minimum payment ($40) + the amount she is over her limit! Let's just say total, this is about $80 to $90 they want RIGHT NOW! Well, she just found out she needs to get the brakes done on her van (they started making "that" noise). Does she give the $90 to the credit card people, or does she get her brakes done at that brake shop? Kids' safety at risk here, so she opts to get her brakes done, and pays what she can against the card...thinking paying something is better than nothing! More late fees for the unpaid portion, more overlimit fees...her minimum payment due is starting to get higher and higher. Her phone starts ringing every day with them hounding her for the minimum payment due on the account, and she tries to explain to them nicely that she just can't make that payment. She asks if there is anything they can do...raise her limit so that she no longer incurs all the fees, lower her interest rate, etc. The credit card company will not budge. They end up closing the account, and sending it to collections. At this point, her $500 card now has a $1000 balance!!! She tries to work with collections, but the best they can do is 4 payments of $250! For a person with a budget as tight as hers, the poor woman simply cannot come up with this kind of money (yes, there are tax refunds, but this money has been going to buy clothes for the kids and continued repairs on the van). I'm sure many can see where this little story is going!

Fact is, there are many, many Americans in the same boat as the woman I described (not a real person that I know, but I am sure she probably really exists out there). Something happens, one little mistake, and their credit cards get out of control! I've been guilty of it! I can't tell you how many times I forget February is a 28-day month when I'm right in the middle of it! I'll sit down to pay that bill on the 25th like I always do, and think, "Drats!!! I needed to get this out 2 days ago to get it there by the 1st!!!" I have recently had this cause a similar domino effect on one card (this happened earlier this year), but thanks to us having enough money in the budget for me to bring the card under control before it got out of control, I am okay, now. But there are many out there who do not have that extra money, and end up with a debt out of control. Their fault? With more and more people borrowing in a weak economy, this is bound to happen more and more, so they plan on vamping up on their collectors to cover it!

[color=Red]****Adult term removed - Jason[/color]

subi u rock girlfriend!!!!

well if the irs is going to start collecting this way I hope they are prepared to deal with fdcpa violations because if they put up with the ignort actions and the way some of these collectors treat consumers they better be prepared for some lawsuits. That would be a headline and a half.