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I wouldn't want to hijack this thread, but I don't think there was any ask/tell from a debt collector. I know little to nothing about the court process, agencies that buy debts to collect on, or ingenius ways of getting out of debt, but I can fill in some blanks on what a third party agency that I work for does. It might even be helpful! I don't know if you'd call me a particularly successful collector either, but I'm not in any danger of losing my job as far as I can tell so I must be doing something right. But in regards to calls at different numbers, especially work or cellphone, it's our company policy to always take numbers off the listing if when calling a workplace anyone there says 'Don't call.' For cellphones it's sort of the same; we can call them, sometimes right away but in other states we have to try and reach a home phone first, because a lot of the time they're not always identified as cells and most of the time people don't mind. But if you say that you are talking on a cellphone and we're using up minutes or just ask to call another line, we'll take that number out too. Generally, with third party collections we mostly seem to be the 'carrot' approach to getting paid rather than the stick. We can't garnish wages, take people to court, etc etc, so it's mostly calling and looking for people that want to pay their debts and working with them for a payment schedule or a settlement. Which could be important to know when getting called by a collector; all I particularly need to hear is 'I don't intend to pay' or 'Handle this only through mail' before I'll add the right notes to make sure you're not bothered and most of the people I work with would do the same, since talking about something you don't want to do is just wasting everyone's time. Oh, saying that you're dead, out of country, in jail, not the right person, etc, really only works for a little while until someone does skiptracing and gets a new number or address. It really is just easier to play ball and say 'Don't call me anymore' so we can all move on with our lives. By the way, I do fully approve of suing or getting your AG involved with scumbags who're harassing people. Ultimately it means less competition down the line, and hopefully without those jackasses the well won't be as poisoned. In my job I just want to talk to people who have intentions on paying, and getting a runaround from well-meaning relatives, friends, etc, who pick up the phone (And who I can't even hint at the word 'debt' with except in the case of spouses, or those with written permission on file if they're getting a friend/relative/pimp to pay their debt) and stall me over and over again gets annoying really quickly. It's easy to understand why they'd do it but it's frustrating because I definitely have no plans on cursing, threatening, or intimidating someone over their debt when I could just as easily move on to the next file if they don't want to pay. Also, it's not allowed at our company to be sarcastic or demeaning, so I can't imagine it being allowed at any other agencies with any professionalism. Probably not as actionable as other cases of harassment or barristry but it might be good for getting at least the jerk giving you a hard time fired if you call the company and talk to someone higher up.
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Feb 22, 2010 22:49
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| # ¿ Apr 23, 2024 20:43 |
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Factory Ten posted:I have a bill on my credit report for $74. Apparently its an old bill with Sprint that never got paid. Its now in the hands of some debt collections agency. While $74 isn't that much and I could offer to do a pay-for-delete, is there anything else I can try to get it removed from the credit report that'll save me some cash? Would my first step be to contact the credit agencies and dispute the validity of said item? Or would you suggest something else? Like others have said, it probably won't have any real impact on your credit rating overall. What I'd suggest is that the next time they talk to you, ask what the original debt amount was and stick to it until they tell you. If it's accruing interest or additional charges everytime the debt switches hands then you might have a problem that you'll need to negotiate on or find a way to get it deleted, but if it's stayed at the same amount while you were with Sprint and after it was charged off to a collection agency, you could probably just ignore it completely. Though if you really just want to get your credit score up, just pay it completely. It's just 74 dollars, any real savings you'd get on it would probably mean not seeing a movie for the next month or two, or switching to generic ketchup for awhile.
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Feb 25, 2010 19:05
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