Fair Reporting on the Services Debt Collectors Provide
If you want to find some balanced reporting on debt collection agencies, their agents and their methods, you'd be hard-pressed.
Type in any debt collection phrase into a search engine, and you'll find nothing but articles and rants under headings like "Debt Collection Horror Stories" and "Sleazy New Debt Collection Tactics".
Debt collectors are a vital part of the economy; giving services and goods away with no hope of compensation is not the path to a healthy economic climate.
But with reports constantly out like the one that says that the Federal Trade Commission in the US receives in excess of 100,000 complaints each year against debt collectors, one wonders about how the industry will respond.
The industry group, Credit Services Association for instance, is hitting back at the irresponsible behavior that debtors exhibit not keeping up with their responsibilities, with a presentation that defends the vital service that debt collectors provide.
There are quite a few online forums that deal in exchanging tips and tricks to evade being tracked down, for instance, that they point to.
They name websites like Getoutofdebtfree and Penaltychargesforum as the worst offenders.
But with some collectors, according to the OFT, there are actually some unintended consequences to their debt collection efforts.
For instance, when debt collectors are handed the financial information of people whom they need to go after, sometimes, that personal financial information ends up being sold on the market - and it results in identity theft.
Debt collection as a regulated industry, is not that well-established; and a certain number of problems do need addressing.
Other areas of unfair behavior complained about often, include receiving calls from the debt collectors to answer for debts that are owed by someone else of the same name, attempts by debt collectors to revive debts that are statute-barred, receiving threats with legal action (when the law doesn't permit legal action on a debt is older than six years and therefore statute barred), and suggesting that the debtor should sell his property or borrow money from someone to pay them off.
Still, most collectors work within the general consensus of what fair practices involve.
When a debt collector first comes across a new sum to collect, he will first send out a letter by post, demanding that the sum owed be paid right away.
If there is no response to it, the letters will keep being sent, pestering for payment, once every week or so.
When that doesn't work, the debt collector will move on to the more pressuring method of contact directly by phone, trying to offer suggestions of how one might manage to muster the sum required.
Often, the suggestions made are of tremendous help to the debtor.
For instance, debt collectors have experience showing people exactly how reneging on their responsibilities will adversely affect their credit standing, and they will be able to demonstrate the exact extent to which this can happen.
Such advice is often useful, and provides a genuine incentive to them to pay.
With time, some of the rough edges on the debt collection business model will certainly be addressed; but until then, as any other new and important service, debt collection agencies will still need to be given their due.
Type in any debt collection phrase into a search engine, and you'll find nothing but articles and rants under headings like "Debt Collection Horror Stories" and "Sleazy New Debt Collection Tactics".
Debt collectors are a vital part of the economy; giving services and goods away with no hope of compensation is not the path to a healthy economic climate.
But with reports constantly out like the one that says that the Federal Trade Commission in the US receives in excess of 100,000 complaints each year against debt collectors, one wonders about how the industry will respond.
The industry group, Credit Services Association for instance, is hitting back at the irresponsible behavior that debtors exhibit not keeping up with their responsibilities, with a presentation that defends the vital service that debt collectors provide.
There are quite a few online forums that deal in exchanging tips and tricks to evade being tracked down, for instance, that they point to.
They name websites like Getoutofdebtfree and Penaltychargesforum as the worst offenders.
But with some collectors, according to the OFT, there are actually some unintended consequences to their debt collection efforts.
For instance, when debt collectors are handed the financial information of people whom they need to go after, sometimes, that personal financial information ends up being sold on the market - and it results in identity theft.
Debt collection as a regulated industry, is not that well-established; and a certain number of problems do need addressing.
Other areas of unfair behavior complained about often, include receiving calls from the debt collectors to answer for debts that are owed by someone else of the same name, attempts by debt collectors to revive debts that are statute-barred, receiving threats with legal action (when the law doesn't permit legal action on a debt is older than six years and therefore statute barred), and suggesting that the debtor should sell his property or borrow money from someone to pay them off.
Still, most collectors work within the general consensus of what fair practices involve.
When a debt collector first comes across a new sum to collect, he will first send out a letter by post, demanding that the sum owed be paid right away.
If there is no response to it, the letters will keep being sent, pestering for payment, once every week or so.
When that doesn't work, the debt collector will move on to the more pressuring method of contact directly by phone, trying to offer suggestions of how one might manage to muster the sum required.
Often, the suggestions made are of tremendous help to the debtor.
For instance, debt collectors have experience showing people exactly how reneging on their responsibilities will adversely affect their credit standing, and they will be able to demonstrate the exact extent to which this can happen.
Such advice is often useful, and provides a genuine incentive to them to pay.
With time, some of the rough edges on the debt collection business model will certainly be addressed; but until then, as any other new and important service, debt collection agencies will still need to be given their due.
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