Finance Articles

In the first two articles I wrote about what a collections account was, how sending delinquent accounts out to an agency profits a creditor, and the act of a third party collection agency buying old debt from a creditor.

When it comes to the subject of collecting debt, there are a lot of misconceptions and misinformation. Here are some tools of the trade that you can use if a bill collector ever calls you. When the debt collector calls, the first thing you want to do is determine if this is a third party collector or an in house collector. Third party collectors are hired by creditors on contingency, while in house collectors are the creditors.

Individual phone collectors will be given a portfolio of accounts, and the bulk of their workday, every day, will be spent working them. Collection agents are subject to many performance evaluations and most of their paycheck is earned from personal commission payments. Thus, the size of a debt collector’s paycheck depends on how successful he or she is at collecting from debtors. This factor, coupled with relentless confrontations with angry and sensitive debtors, makes for an extremely high stress job with high employee turnover.

Welcome back to debt collection 101, your beginner’s guide to debt collection. In articles one and two, I wrote about the different types of debt collectors, how collection agents will find a debtor, and what they will do when they contact the debtor. In article three I described the strict rules and regulations that debt collectors, particularly third party debt collectors must abide by when they make each phone call.

In the middle of an American economic crisis, one industry seems to be booming: the collection industry! That’s right, according to the most current research more than fifty five percent of the participating collection companies are planning to add to the amount of staff that they already employ this fiscal year.

In parts one and two in this set of articles on the very basics of debt collection, I let you know about the differences between an in house collector and a third party debt collector. I spoke about the different sorts of ways that collection agents will find their debtors, and described a number of statements that the debt collector must say before they can proceed in their attempt to collect debt from you.

On February 22nd, 2010, the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act took effect. The CARD Act had one major purpose: to attempt to put a curb on credit card practices and set limits to the fees that credit card companies charge consumers. It was created with consumers in mind, setting limits to the amount of credit that will be available to them in this recession “for their own good.”

These days, money is tight for anyone trying to meet the standards of living, even young people. As the job market tightens with more and more people losing jobs, competition for employment becomes more fierce and a college education may now be a necessity. While you were in school, loans paid your way through college, but since you have graduated the unthinkable has happened, and these debts have come out to haunt you, maybe even before you are able to secure your first job. A whole slew of debt collectors may be contacting you, and now, you are a frenzied mess searching for anyone who can help you with a student loan consolidation.

Your credit score, and your criminal record. Both depend on your past actions, both can make you or break you, and both follow you around for a really long time. But, only you, and maybe your lawyer, know your criminal record. Your credit score is a whole other story. It can be pulled when you apply for a new credit card, go for that new job, try to get a new car, or even try to move in to a new place.

Your credit score. It could be your worst nightmare, or a dream come true. But most of the time it’s kind of like that rude mother in law coming to pay you a visit at your house. You are aware that she is coming to stay, and you are not looking forward to it, but you are too nervous to ask or even consider how long she might be paying you that visit. OK, so that analogy wasn’t that great. But anyway, read on to see just how long negative marks will stay on your credit history.