Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - 18 questions that will stop debt collectors abusive phone calls

Anexkahn · 04-06-2006, 10:51 AM

ya i have to call BS to them being required to provide SSN, and going off on them really isn't going to help much. some of the other advise, about keeping a good paper trail and logs of every contact with them is a great thing to do however.

Its also very important to figure out if you're talking to a debt collection company, or the collections department of your creditor. If they are in the collections department of your creditor it is to your advantage to talk to them. At this point it is more than likely that your account hasnt been charged off yet and you can salvage some of your credit. Almost all credit companies prefer to keep the account and have a payment arrangement (because they can keep acruing interest on the balance). If you're just an asshole to them and refuse to take calls, prohibit them from calling, they're more likely to not work with you and charge off the account as bad debt.

If the person is calling from a debt collection service, chances are the account has been closed, written off, and turned over to them already, so theres not much you can do at that point to salvage your credit other than pay the balance off eventually so it shows up as bad debt, but that it was eventually paid in full. At this stage there are advantages and disadvantages to working with the collections agency. You can set up payment arrangements usually and that will delay further action on their part, but, if you can save up money yourself in a short amount of time (60-90 days) you can approach them with a settlement sum of approximately 60-70% of the balance (sometimes as low as 50%) and they'll usually jump at the chance to close and collect on the account. If you wait to long trying this route tho it could lead to other actions from the debt collector.

Its definitely a distinction you want to find out as to whether the debt collector is with your original creditor, or with a collections agency and whether your account still resides with the creditor or if it has been charged off. IIf it is still with your original creditor do everything in your power to keep it there.

04-06-2006, 10:51 AM	#3 (permalink)
Anexkahn Crazy Location: whOregon	ya i have to call BS to them being required to provide SSN, and going off on them really isn't going to help much. some of the other advise, about keeping a good paper trail and logs of every contact with them is a great thing to do however. Its also very important to figure out if you're talking to a debt collection company, or the collections department of your creditor. If they are in the collections department of your creditor it is to your advantage to talk to them. At this point it is more than likely that your account hasnt been charged off yet and you can salvage some of your credit. Almost all credit companies prefer to keep the account and have a payment arrangement (because they can keep acruing interest on the balance). If you're just an asshole to them and refuse to take calls, prohibit them from calling, they're more likely to not work with you and charge off the account as bad debt. If the person is calling from a debt collection service, chances are the account has been closed, written off, and turned over to them already, so theres not much you can do at that point to salvage your credit other than pay the balance off eventually so it shows up as bad debt, but that it was eventually paid in full. At this stage there are advantages and disadvantages to working with the collections agency. You can set up payment arrangements usually and that will delay further action on their part, but, if you can save up money yourself in a short amount of time (60-90 days) you can approach them with a settlement sum of approximately 60-70% of the balance (sometimes as low as 50%) and they'll usually jump at the chance to close and collect on the account. If you wait to long trying this route tho it could lead to other actions from the debt collector. Its definitely a distinction you want to find out as to whether the debt collector is with your original creditor, or with a collections agency and whether your account still resides with the creditor or if it has been charged off. IIf it is still with your original creditor do everything in your power to keep it there. Last edited by Anexkahn; 04-06-2006 at 10:59 AM..