A collector shares her story....

[bk4sky]

Hi there. im pretty sure ive posted what ive done for a living before but i wanted to do it again. i just wanted to share my story.

How ironic a debt collector ends up filing for BK. Well let me tell you even tho im a collector and knew a lot about the do's and donts i was still scared out of my gord about filing BK. i took 2 hard job losses and some pay cuts and had no choice but to take care of things the right way by filing BK.

Before i got into a bad financial situation i used to wonder why it seemed like the people would always say they weren't home or avoid talking to me at all costs. i always thought why are they so afraid? why not just answer the phone and talk to me? but guess what now i know why. being on the other end of the line isn't that easy. i barely took any of the calls from my collectors, and the reason for me is i honestly felt like a big loser about the whole situation and was upset enough about it that i really didn't feel like speaking about it to anyone else. The few that i did talk to ended up being very nice.

its not a bad job if you can overcome a lot of the nasty people you are going to deal with everyday. i overcame that fairly quick when i was young and got offered a job in the field.

When i started having my financial hardships and really struggling i was able to see things from both ends of the spectrum. really and truly able to understand what the people are saying to me and letting them know that hey we all fall on hard times you'll make it through this. when i get someone on the phone and they start telling me their financial situation i can honestly say hey i been there. and i don't dread the nasty calls as much as i used to because i just know how it can be. The best collectors are the ones that have been there before. so if you get someone on the phone treating you like crap and making you feel like crap about yourself then hang up on them, cause obviously they've never been thru rough times and wouldn't be acting like that.

we are not all bad. im really tired so i apologize for the choppiness of this post.

i started out collecting on people who purchased timeshares and couldn't keep up on their monthly payments. I did that for a very long time, it was an in house financing company so we couldn't do anything, if the person couldn't pay all we could really do is say they would keep getting the calls. interestingly it was one of the easiest things Ive ever collected on.

i worked on collecting state taxes for various different states, and that was rough. i thought for sure it would be easy cause if someone was going to pay anything they were late on it would probably be their taxes, plus if they coudnt pay there would be repercussions when it went back to the state. But surprise it wasn't that easy. i did well with it but there were a lot of people who just didn't care.

i collected on credit cards for a very short period of time and im glad about that because that had to be the worst! i barely got anyone to answer the phone and if they did they hung up.

i collected on people who owed diff types of fines, im talking speeding tix, to DUI, to assault, i had to call a lot of people who just recently got out of jail about fines they had to pay. Collecting on the really criminal stuff had to be the most interesting and i liked it. Most of the people were very nice and looking to get their lives straightened out, and wiling to make payment arrangements.

for the past year and a half Ive been collecting in the student loan industry and this has been my favorite. Most of the people care and want to get things straightened out so they can get back in school, and the other thing i really like about it, is that if someone cannot pay we can offer them other options such as deferments, forbearance's, all diff sorts of things. So i like that when i talk to someone and they say omg im so glad i finally called thank you so much for helping me. a lot of students are afraid to call because they don't even realize they have those options available to them.

one thing i would never ever collect on is medical bills, thats just not right and i would feel so bad...its not even fair.

i talk to all diff types of people all day long and you can tell whose telling the truth and whose not, the people who are very ill or have a very ill child i just let them control the convo and wish them the best of luck...its just something i cant do.

sometimes i get those day where all day long its people screaming at me, those days are hard on me sometimes.

i dont even know where i was going with this post, i think i just wanted to say if a collector gives you attitude hang up its not worth your time. i handle alot of calls myself where they tell me how rudely they were treated the last time they called our company and theres no need for that.

i also just posted it to let anyone know that if they want to PM me a question about a collection phone call im here to help. i know alot about collections, but i dont know everything but id be more than happy to help.

[dingdong]

That was a nice post. I bet it can be a very crummy job at times, just like any job.

I bet collecting on SL is a good niche in collections for you, since there are alternatives to garnishment,etc. Some people just don't know and it is probably rewarding for you to inform them of ways to get out of default that they may not know about. Do you inform them of consolidation options like the William Ford program which can actually get a borrower out of default by consolidating through WF?

I always thought if I was ever a collector,(which I would suck at tremendously cuz I would fold in a hearbeat) I would just say things like . I know your situation is bad, and I want to help, even if it is a small amount, would you be able to pay anything? But when the collectors demand payment that is way over the means of the debtor, how do they expect to get anywhere with the debt?

If they said something like. "I am aware you have this 2500.00 debt, and I know things are hard for you, but could you pay 20.00/month until things get better for you and I could keep this debt from going to a lawsuit. When you get on your feet again, you can pay more." I would think the collector actually gave a rats ass and be willing to work with them. But they get so demanding so quickly, you just shut down and become adversarial.

Especially the JDB, they pay so little for those debts and get so nasty so quickly.

What is the typical commission for a debt collector? Do they get a percentage of the debt they actually collect ( and I mean the actual people that call, not the agency)

I always wondered what motivated debt collectors, do you have quotas you have to meet to keep your job or is it a guaranteed wage and then a percentage of the amount you actually collect added to your wage?

[bk4sky]

thank you im glad you liked the post.

yeah SL are cool cause of all the options, we offer the WD ford and if they ask about their interest rate getting lowered its fixed, so i always tell them to try and consolidate their loans with us for a lower interest rate thru a diff company, and we have the permission to give them the ph to the other company.

most debt collection jobs to require you ask for full delinquent amt in your 1st attempt, so i usually do, now if its a outrageous high amount then i wont.

it usually goes like this, 1st i ask them to bring it up to date today with a credit card debit card or check, if they say no, my favorite thing to do is say something like well ok sir i can understand you cant take care of all this today, but how much can you pay today? i love doing it that way because its like your kicking the ball in their field and they dont feel as much pressure, it works nice that way cause sometimes ill get more than i expected by doing it that way. my company requires that we ask for payment 2x.

collectors do get paid well. when i collected on travel packages i got hourly rate plus 6% of all debts collected, then i was promoted to supervisor and got 6% still on what i collected plus 1% override on what my collectors made, that was some good money. had to leave that job.

the next place i went where we collected on taxes, fines and credit cards had an aweful commission structure, so i mostly made my hourly rate and then when i did bonus it wasnt even that much, and the bonus structure was so aweful that NO ONE was hitting it, its not like it was just me. but then i got promoted in that department to supervisor, wich was a nice pay increase plus we got a bonus every month for meeting the budget. well that didnt last long because the office in general was losing so much money they had to shut that office down.

So thats how i ended up doing student loans. The bonus structure is decent, basically if you are in the top 20% of the company you bonus, ive bonused a few times but have not latley out of my own fault. we are on an automatic dialer and its very repetitive, every call is the same.

but the department i just applied for is skip tracing and i really want to get in there because its the type of collecting i enjoy, ill actually be skip tracing people and trying to find the debtors and then calling them to collect, and theres no automatic dialer. i LOVE skiptracing its so much fun and the department im in now has no skip tracing and its the 1st collections i ever did on a dialer, so if i get hired to move over to skip tracing it will be awesome, ill be collecting on student loans and skip tracing, it evens out the day nicely.

i just had my interview 2 days ago and it went great, 1st i interviewed with the supervisor, then she took me back and let me sit with a collector and watch what they do, and then i interviewed with the director and i felt realy comfortable with him, and he seemed very interested in me and in the fact that i have experience as collections supervisor cause the company is expanding....so im praying i get that job cause i cant stand being on the dialer all day repeating myself over and over, theres much more to do in the skip department.

[DeadManCrawling]

Great post, thank you for sharing.

It is nice to see the other side of the phone isn't always the terrible place it seems to be in our minds.

Sounds like you have worked for some of the "good" shops as opposed to the ones that threaten to break legs and put people in jail.

Curious if they check YOUR credit before hiring and if a pending bankruptcy is a problem for you. If so, how do you handle it in the interviews?

[catleg]

How do you feel about trying to collect from people who, no matter how much you chew their ear off, aren't going to pay short of a lawsuit landing on their doorstep? I have had collectors waste as much as 1/2 hour at a time jawboning with me and I wonder, what compensation and incentive structure could possibly justify this?

[bk4sky]

^^^
yeah. the 1st company where i only collected on vacation packages didn't teach us much at all except get the money and if they ask what will happen if they don't pay we could only say they will continue to rec calls.

The company i work for now i learned so much about collection laws and skip tracing laws its cool. The company i work for now did check my credit when i applied but its only to make sure you dont have a debt with them, if you did you would have to clear it up or you couldnt get the job cause its considered a conflict of interest. When i started at this company i still had good credit, but i know they must not mind about anything else cause alot of the people that got hired with me had really bad credit and also a few of my close friends told me they had BK's on their credit report. so im really happy the company doesn't discriminate against that.

The job that ive interviewed for is only a transfer to a diff dept in my company so the credit issue won't be a problem.

note***** throughout my experience in collections we are basically allowed to get nasty with the people, at all my jobs Ive had people that make every call a fight, and i don't see the point to that. I just don't see the point to that, why am i going to get worked up like that if someone says they cant pay? Also from doing it so long im basically numb to anything they can say to me, but at the same time i have bad days myself im not claiming to be Ms. perfect, that's why every time i have to raise my voice at someone everyone looks like OMG lol. If i have to lose my cool on the phone that's like personal defeat to me. I find it much more rewarding then when the convo is all said and done they thank me for helping them and apologize for being rude to me.

[bk4sky]

How do you feel about trying to collect from people who, no matter how much you chew their ear off, aren't going to pay short of a lawsuit landing on their doorstep? I have had collectors waste as much as 1/2 hour at a time jawboning with me and I wonder, what compensation and incentive structure could possibly justify this?

i think its sickening and they must be really greedy human beings, i worked with one person like that at my last job. She was the most money hungry miserable greedy human being you can imagine. She would turn every call into a fight, and would just keep going and going until she either got the money or hung up. the next time you get someone like that you should ask them that they would probably get really pissed off, but they would deserve it.


( i was replying to deadman crawling when you posted this but if you read the last part u will see i touch on that.)

Being a collector i do have to cut people off a lot., like after the opening statement of asking them if they can pay alot will usually want to go into their whole life story, so what i do is i get my 2x asking for payment out as quickly as i can, sometimes having to cut them off, and i can tell they are starting to get a little mad at me, but as soon as i say ok sir let me just take a look here and see what i can do to help, thats the big ice breaker for me, then they usually calm down a little when they see im not the enemy.

So i kinda understand why some people call in or answer the phone with both barrells loaded, they probably get alot more nasty collectors than friendly ones. Thats why if they sound irritated or ready to go off i keep my calm instead of getting nasty back.

[albacore44]

Seeing that your in Pa. I think I may know the timeshare Co. you worked for, and I believe they went BK. and are long gone.......based in King of Prushia ?? Fairfield I believe. I had a TS with them, I bought in early 1990's at Lake Havasu. bad mistake on my part, I was too impulsive. so I paid for a couple of years, but after a while just coulden't.So I let it go. got lots of collection calls threating to ruin my credit. I told them, just take it back and re-sell it, I don't want any compensation for what I had paid in. eventually the calls stopped, nothing showed up on my credit, and I never heard from then again. Then one day surfing the internet, i saw the company went bankrupt, and someone else bought the complex that my Ts was at.

[bk4sky]

Seeing that your in Pa. I think I may know the timeshare Co. you worked for, and I believe they went BK. and are long gone.......based in King of Prushia ?? Fairfield I believe. I had a TS with them, I bought in early 1990's at Lake Havasu. bad mistake on my part, I was too impulsive. so I paid for a couple of years, but after a while just coulden't.So I let it go. got lots of collection calls threating to ruin my credit. I told them, just take it back and re-sell it, I don't want any compensation for what I had paid in. eventually the calls stopped, nothing showed up on my credit, and I never heard from then again. Then one day surfing the internet, i saw the company went bankrupt, and someone else bought the complex that my Ts was at.

i dont think its them because they have a huge office in my area, and im like 2/ 1/2 hrs from KofP and never heard of them having an office there.

[catleg]

What's the biggest lie you've ever told while collecting?
And what's the biggest lie you've ever been told, as a collector and a collectee?

[bk4sky]

What's the biggest lie you've ever told while collecting?
And what's the biggest lie you've ever been told, as a collector and a collectee?

hmmmmm....im going to have to think about this one. the biggest lie i ever told while collecting? i never told the debtor anything that couldn't happen. i mean if they asked what could happen or was close to defaulting i would say at this point they may start looking into garnishing your wages, or at 90 days this will end up on your credit report..things like that..which was true but some people always take that as a threat and ask if im threatening them. i always ID myself. i think the only thing i ever lied about was if they asked for my supervisor i would say there isn't one available because even if there was the supervisor would tell them the same thing, and that was to the people who were being real jerks, if it was a serious matter then i would get a SUP.

the biggest lie i was told by a debtor? i guess i would have to say when they say they died and then when you ask them to send a copy of the death cert you never rec it, and the next time you try to call back they are not home lol.

[bk4sky]

I am not trying to be rude, but you haven't done "collections" until your face to face with people and taking cars and personal property. No offense but anyone can sit behind a desk and make calls all day and say what ever you want. It's not until your face to face with people and see the pain, the anger, the shear and udder frustration that you are taking away the car. They ask how am I supposed to get my kids to daycare tomorrow so I can go to work, says the working mom who's car is being repo'd because the soon to be ex-hubby didn't follow along and keep making the payments and she is clueless that car is out for repo.

Look, I read your story, and it read more like a confession so you can ease your own mind and that is fine, but one thing to keep in mind is this; I used to think I was a very nice guy and just doing my job when I did repo's, still do to a point. I knew I was a lot "nicer" than a lot of other repo guys, but then you think about it, what is "nicer"? I was still going to take your car, I was still going to get paid for what I did. Was I 'nicer' because I let you get your stuff out of the car and not just hook it and head for the lot? Was I 'nicer' because I was not abusive or rude? Those were all tactics that made my job easier now that I look back on it.

So, my point is this, unless you had the ability (and you didn't) to hear some one say, I can pay this because ___________ and then you said; "OK, no problem, lets just take care of this when you can, just call me when your able." Or you said; "I understand your problems, don't worry about it, we won't try to collect this anymore."

No, you couldn't say that. Just like once I found a car I can't let them keep it (unless I didn't want to get paid and maybe lose that account).

Your still doing your job. And although its a job that needs to be done, your really no different than anyone else that does the same job, just the fact you like to think you are better makes you feel good.

Now I won't argue there are some people that are really really bad at what they do and lie and cheat, steal etc to get paid, but all in all, its all the same, I am sorry to say.

i beg to differ with you, but that's your opinion. If you can stereotype every collector in the world as a certain type of person for doing there YOUR choice, no offense taken. I decided to post my story here cause thats who i am, its what i do for a living, and i posted it because im not afraid to come to a site where people might hate me for what i do when they dont even know me, AND i posted it to say that collectors arent perfect either, some of US have financial problems too and have filed for BK. AND i also posted it on here b/c so many people on here are dealing with the phone calls that i figured i could actually HELP OUT and answer some questions. im a very open person...thats all.

it sounds to me like YOUR trying to play the martyr here because you have done face to face collections, and that you think your better than me, thats what i got out of your post anyway, but hey ya know what? think WHATEVER you want!

your really making no sense to me, thats almost like saying yeah i got pulled over by a cop for speeding and he gave me a ticket so he a pig and all cops are pigs lol

[BigJohn]

I have a business and I have had to do 'repossessions' and have gone after people to get them to pay their bills or make a check good. I have had to go to court and I have gotten 2 judgements, repoed a computer, went to court over a person passing a bad check and have had several other people arrested for spreading bad paper.

I did it because I had to. I don't like doing this type of stuff. I try putting into place in my store policies that will make it almost impossible for these things to happen again.

[bk4sky]

I have a business and I have had to do 'repossessions' and have gone after people to get them to pay their bills or make a check good. I have had to go to court and I have gotten 2 judgements, repoed a computer, went to court over a person passing a bad check and have had several other people arrested for spreading bad paper.

I did it because I had to. I don't like doing this type of stuff. I try putting into place in my store policies that will make it almost impossible for these things to happen again.

exactly, and every company has to do these things, its a part of business.

[MiSSMaGoo]

Good post I'm in the same field.... I remember the day one of the supervisors came to me and said your accounts are 6 months past due and I know you're filing bk but you're going to pay your accounts with our bank, right? LOL Umm I was caught off guard and so embarassed b/c other employees heard but she ended up losing her job over disclosing my personal info in front of many peers and I still have a job so I guess in the end it worked out. Good for you though for sharing that, I'm sure most ppl here hate collectors but some of us are nice b/c we can really relate.