When The Collector Comes Knocking…

[keithle1]

Stay away from the credit cards, earthlings!!!

If you must have one for the proverbial "emergency," don''t get one that has a crazy limit of $5000 or something.

Cash, cash, cash. Pay in cash. Always. Cash = spend less. Credit card = spend more. A lot more.

[ranger1948]

blackyowe
I agree witjh you for the most part, but if you need to rent a remntal car wihout a credit card you have to make a $250 deposit up front in cash.

[blackyowe]

Do what I did make paying them off job one and then dump them for ever. Its been three or four years since I owned a credit card and I will not get one again.

[4marlene]

Get a copy of your credit report. you are entitled to a free one yearly from each of the 3 credit bureaus. If need another, you can get it free again if you are denied credit within the past 30 days, or by filing a fraud alert. You can place a fraud alert every 90 days and request another free report. Be sure to read your Fair lending practices rights. From your local courthouse, find out what the statute of limitations is on civil or small claims suits. In California, SOL is 4 years on breach of contract suits. If your debt is near or past the SOL, you can negotiate your bill down as low as 10% in some cases,or even blow it off, but 50% is most common. You have the right to tell the collectors to stop harrassing you, in writing. If they threaten you or break the rules of Fair Credit Lending practices, turn them into the FTC "Federal Trade Commission" and the OCC "Office of Comptroller and Cash". If you get sued, most courthouses have a self help clinic, and law libraries that are usually harboring law students, lawyers and sometimes even judges that might answer simple questions for free or steer you in the direction of the nearest law school. If you make even one little payment to a collection agency then you have re-dated the debt to keep it fresh. After SOL you can just tell them that and to quit bugging you. The debt will stay on your credit reports for 7 years, regardless of you state''s SOL. Sign me, Won my Lawsuit on a 9 yr old debt.

[norteltech]

Of course they choose the best and nicest debt collector in the place to do the story - Folks, lets put it this way, I am a Telecom Tech and I''''ve been inside a collection agency - it''''s not a nice place - What CBS needs to do is get a story on how bad it really is - I think alot of people will be shocked at what the collectors will do - up into telling people "I''''ll sit outside your house until you pay this debt" or "I''''ll have you arrested so you can do some hard time unless I get a payment now" - don''''t think it happens - again, your interview was very carefully thought and selected - CBS - Tell the truth!

[redbarron73]

Every month I take all the names of the people I owe money and put them in a hat, shake it up, draw a name, and that is the person who gets paid.

Call me one more time, I''ll take your name out of the hat.

[forthepeopl1]

NOWAK, PLEASE CALL ME, AND I WILL TELL YOU WERE TO PUT IT.-------------------- ANYONE THATS TRY''S TO GET ANYTHING OF MIND IS WORTH KILLING FOR, RIGHT BUSH/CHENEY, NOTHING HAPPENING TO THEM..SO WHY SHOULD AMERICANS CARE ABOUT PAYING FOR ANYTHING EITHER

[suzieh2308]

To all the angry posts on here: Just pay your bills off and you won''t get collection calls

Btw - I work in collections and its not all threats and yelling. When you ignore people time after time after time, they tend to get a little annoyed but for the most part we just call you and ask you to pay your bill. We are not as evil as you all make us out to be and if you all paid your bills on time, I wouldn''t have a job!!

[associated33]

We are outraged by this deceptive report by an anchor who supposed to be professional. The public has the right to know when to pay and when not to pay any debt claimed by a deceptive Collection Industry. ALL THOSE VIEWERS WHO PAID ANY DEBT TO A COLLECTION AGENCY ON YOUR ADVICE, ARE ENTITLED TO DAMAGES!! WE DEMAND IMMEDIATE CORRECTION ON THIS FALSE REPORT, OR FACE CLASS ACTION LITIGATION!! THIS MUST BE DONE TODAY OR MONDAY YOU HAVE AN APPERACE, ON FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT. Robertson, Lead Counsel

[associated33]

We are outraged by this deceptive report by an anchor who supposed to be professional. The public has the right to know when to pay and when not to pay any debt claimed by a deceptive Collection Industry. ALL THOSE VIEWERS WHO PAID ANY DEBT TO A COLLECTION AGENCY ON YOUR ADVICE, ARE ENTITLED TO DAMAGES!! WE DEMAND IMMEDIATE CORRECTION ON THIS FALSE REPORT, OR FACE CLASS ACTION LITIGATION!! THIS MUST BE DONE TODAY OR MONDAY YOU HAVE AN APPERACE, ON FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT. Robertson, Lead Counsel

[associated33]

We are outraged by this deceptive report by an anchor who supposed to be professional. The public has the right to know when to pay and when not to pay any debt claimed by a deceptive Collection Industry. ALL THOSE VIEWERS WHO PAID ANY DEBT TO A COLLECTION AGENCY ON YOUR ADVICE, ARE ENTITLED TO DAMAGES!! WE DEMAND IMMEDIATE CORRECTION ON THIS FALSE REPORT, OR FACE CLASS ACTION LITIGATION!! THIS MUST BE DONE TODAY OR MONDAY YOU HAVE AN APPERACE, ON FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT. Robertson, Lead Counsel

[michelledun1]

In response to barbie, I agree, I was a bill collector for 19 years and medical debts are tough, in my experiences consumers put medical bills at the bottom of their list and also many of them believe a medical debt cannot be reported to the credit bureaus so they see no point in paying them.
I also wanted to respond to Undermyboot, most people who are in debt cannot afford to get an attorney, and as the article states, if you owe the debt, pay what you can, if you can''t pay anything you should visit a non-profit credit counseling service.
When a bill collector calls you and you tell them to stop, that doesn''t make your debt go away, it just forces the collector or creditor to take another type of action such as legal action or what ever they think is feasible in order to get paid.
I did this for a very long time and was very successful, but that is because like this article states, you must LISTEN to people, learn their situation and then try to help them. Bill collectors who try to get paid by breaking the law don''t get anywhere and just help fuel the fire for the bad reputation bill collectors continue to have.

[barbie62423]

Okay so they are big time collectors on credit cards and overdue car leases. What about the medical bills. I guarantee they don''t get the same results. And before anyone says anything I work in medical billing. Take my word for it the majority of the people don''t care about paying off their medical bills. They know they can always move on to another Doctor or just go to the ER, gave false info, get treated and disappear.

[newmar3]

As an addition to my last post, about 1/2 of the debt collectors ignore the rules of bankruptcy protection. They just continue to make phone calls and make threats anyway.

[newmar3]

It doesn''t work the way it shows on TV. The debt collectors only want to harass you and the banks will not work with you. At 61 years of age, I am losing my home due to health problems,lost job,inept attorney and greedy brother. Nobody wants to help,including the governor of Indiana or any of it''s agencies. My banker told me to file bankruptcy and be done with it. It was a load off of my mind and the "money people" can go to H and I just don''t care anymore!!

[ranger1948]

If people are already deep in debt how can they afford to hire an attorney ?

[undermyboot]

GET AN ATTORNEY AND MAKE THE COLLECTORS DEAL WITH THEM. The debt collector must STOP CALLING YOU. They will take you seriously when you DEFEND YOUR RIGHTS.

The debt collector interviewed is NOT on YOUR SIDE. "Pay up", and "Make Payments" is exactly what you should NOT DO. As soon as you make a payment of even one PENNY they have you for another 7 years.

DO NOT DO WHAT THIS debt collector TELLS YOU! HE IS NOT ON YOUR SIDE!

[ranger1948]

ianlou
I think you missed the point, he has been there, he can empathyze with people in this situation, get them started on the track to recovery.

[ianlou]

There are many growing industries in America today.
Pull yourself up by your bootstraps and become a:
Bill Collector
Bail Bondsman
Prison Guard
Sub Prime Mortgage Huckster
Scrap Copper Collector
Identity Thief
Wal-Mart Greeter

Is this what amounts to a heart warming story these days?
"Twenty years ago he was newly divorced, broke and behind on his bills, but managed to work his way out of trouble." Yeah, by making money going after others who are newly divorced, broke and behind on their bills.

Sounds like a sequal to "It''s a Wonderful Life"

Sheesh.

[ranger1948]

I think it was very informative and can help a lot of people. I think if a collector is polite and talks to thwe people he will also get better results. When thy come on as a touggh guy and make threats they lose every chance of collecting anything and of helping peole get out of a bad situation.