20/20 Episode on Skip-tracing

Just goes to show, it really does take a "special" kind of person to be a bill collector/scammer.

You pay them what they want or they destroy your life....simple.

collection agencies involve themselves in a lot of unfair activities. They do such things because they believe that they are running a race against time. They find their money locked up in receivables and they won't be able to use this money unless it has been recovered and can be turned into a profit.

Because of such reasons, they don't care about any debtor or his feelings. They are aware of the fdcpa laws and even more, they are happy breaking it each day. After all, they want to earn their share of money.

Usually creditors do not want to spoil their goodwill in front of the consumers. If they can become a bit selective in hiring a collection agency, a major portion of the consumer problems will get solved. Most of the people want to pay their debts. But if they have culminated a fear against a collection agency, they won't prefer to deal with them. And end up without paying it. This further makes the agencies more violent towards debtors.

Thus, if the creditors can hire good collection agents, there can be a difference towards better side.

Hi Ben,

You have made several valid and important points in your post. Many people, including myself, have become so intimidated by certain collection agencies that we change our phone number or do whatever we can do avoid the situation. I'm sure that if we were treated fairly, such as the way that Ari (you may know her from other threads here, she is great!) handled her collections cases, our debts would already be on their way to being paid! That's how I feel anyway. Thanks for the great post!

~Mary

Hi Mary,

Do not get intimidated if a collection agency is trying for it. Remember, the federal laws are there to protect you by sheltering you with the fdcpa laws. If any collector is trying to pierce this legal umbrella, you have the rights to sue them up to the extent of damages.

As a matter of fact, the collectors just don't have anything to do other than to scare people verbally. If they can make money through this verbal communications only, it means we are not making the best use of our consumer rights sanctioned by law. And at the end, we become prey to it. We should learn about our rights from the very beginning before this whole thing shapes up. And, then face those who tend to violate the laws.

Ben

Hi again Ben,

I appreciate your posts! Now that I have been with this forum for a while, I have learned so much and I am no longer scared or intimidated when I deal with the collection agencies. I have the law on my side, and that is the most important thing for anybody to remember here. Thanks!

~Mary :)

I can totally support stricter restrictions on skipping, it should really be considered a disclosure issue. On the other hand, in fairness to the collector, how was he to know the woman's personal situation?

It doesn't matter that he didn't know anything about her persona life. He shouldn't have given out her contact info. He's a collector he should be collecting info. not dispersing it to people he calls to locate a person.