I Got Your Money Right Here!
Someone left a message on my machine at home yesterday looking for someone who was not me. It was “very important” that this person call them back at their 1-800 number.
Red flag went off in my mind.
Tonight I got 2 calls, 20 minutes apart from the same woman asking for the same person who wasn’t me. I picked up the phone and said hello and was greeted with an [initially] friendly woman’s voice asking “Oh, hello! Who is this”.
Right away I’m getting ticked off. If you don’t know who this is, why are you calling me? That’s not the first thing you say when the other person picks up the phone anyway. So I answer her question with another question:
“Who’s THIS?”
“Is this xxxx?” No. There’s noone here by that name.
“Is this yyyy?” No. There’s noone here by that name either.
I’m annoyed because judging by this 1-800 number company’s relentless attempts to get in touch with this person, this is obviously a debt collection agency. The tactics these people use are beyond deplorable. I’d rather steal bread from the supermarket than work for these companies.
I hope I’ve made it clear to these “people” that they got the wrong number. They better stop calling me.
In the words of Chuck Norris in the famed Mountain Dew commercial. “You’re messing with the wrong guy” 
February 14th, 2008 at 9:08 am
It’s too bad that debt collection companies need to exist. Many times their tactics can be borderline or flat-out unethical. I lend on prosper.com and make a decent return… it sickens me, though to see loans I own a piece which never receive a single payment… from the most “sincere” borrowers. From an investment perspective, it doesn’t bother me - I expect a certain percentage of defaults and factor that into my forecast.
I guess there are a lot of people looking for something for nothing. What’s your suggestion to keep dead-beat borrowers more accountable without debt collectors resorting to “underhanded” tactics?
February 14th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Well, my advice (given of course that you have the means to do so and you’re not already doing this) is running their credit score before lending. People with good credit these days have plenty of incentive not to sully their FICO score by not making good on a loan, especially with how quickly many lenders are willing to dime people out to Equifax, TransUnion, etc. I am learning that many businesses that extend credit to their customers actually anticipate doubtful collections of up to 20%. Is it me or is that relatively high? Regardless of my opinion, there is really no way to ensure 100% recoupment of loans of any kind.
Tom, being on the lender’s side of the equation, I would think that having to revert to the underhanded means of confronting those who owe is only as underhanded as someone who has “took the money and run”. While Steve Miller would be proud, I’m sure you still want to be paid. It’s a shame that people don’t develop stronger ethics when it comes to borrowing. When I was driving out to Fort Bliss after training, my old man (who I thought was fairly fiscally responsible) accompanied me, and he actually advised me to ditch a student loan because a “financial expert” on some radio station in Florida (but the guy’s probably syndicated) said it was ok to do so as no one would try to recoup the money. My father furthered his endorsement of this idea by telling me how many people in the 60’s and 70’s defaulted on college loans and they got away scott free. Foolishly, I took his advice, and this Scott didn’t get away free. A company called and threatened wage garnishment and tax return seizure if I didn’t work out a payment plan with them immediately. So now after penalties and additional interest accrued, I am basically at square one with a loan I had been paying on faithfully from 1997 to 2003. I would only have had 4 years left to pay and would have been done last year some time had I just done what I was supposed to. It breaks my heart, but I should have let my ethics be my guide rather than my wealthy father’s tainted advice. So even from a borrower’s standpoint, I can identify with why they may feel the need to be so sneaky.
June 18th, 2008 at 2:40 am
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