Debt collectors threaten arrest

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/08/21/debt.collection/index.html#cnnSTCText

In some cases, the people didn't owe any money.
While these guys clearly crossed the line, do the laws about what collectors can and cannot do force them to work with one hand tied behind their backs? After all, they do need to be able to have something they can do to increase the chances that the person will pay the debt.

 

When credit card companies lower their loan shark-level interest rates I'll start feeling sorry for them. Until then, fuck 'em all.

 

There are no such things as debtors prisons, and owing money when the IRS or a court judgment is not involved is a tort, not a crime, and even in the other cases, you'll just have assets attached, you won't get arrested (unless it's tax fraud). Those collectors should get smacked legally

 

What Armchair said

 

My God, reading that REALLY pissed me off.

I dealt with one of these debt collectors once - who called me about a completely different person's debt! - and harrassed me to no avail. Screaming at me, threatening to garnish my wages and place a lien on my home, nearly forcing me into paying someone else's debt. Like this story said, the debt collector who kept calling me identified himself as a representative of THREE different agencies (all from the same phone number from McAllen, Texas).

The problem, like this story says, is that people are bullied into paying, just because they're scared of the consequences or they just want to get the collector off their back.

(Of course, there wouldn't be this problem if people didn't default on their credit, but that's another discussion.)

I was so angry by what I had went through that I started doing research and contacted a lawyer, just to find out what could be done. He told me that debt collectors are looking for a quick payment to meet their quotas, and I recently read a story about a debt collector who said that there are outrageous "quotas" imposed on people who make a living collecting debts. (I wish I could find it, it's worth a read.)

Also, there's a process to go through if you want to negotiate a lower payoff on a defaulted credit card (some debt collectors will take pennies on the dollar) and there's a process for a lien to be placed against your house, for wages to be garnished, for whatever legal steps may be taken.

Edit: Here's that story I read: http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2009/08/08/confessions-of-a-debt-collector/

 

My solution? Don't answer their fucking calls.

 

I used to do this sort of work, back in 1990-91 timeframe, prior to my first newspaper job.
Managers always told us to refer to them as "debtors" on the phones.
And we gave 'em hell, too, while also offering them post-dated check arrangements that we're actually very positive for them.
Collected a lot of money.

 

When I was unemployed, I didn't mind. I was bored.

"Hey, thanks for calling. Yes, I do owe you that, but I'm out of work and barely putting food on the table each week and keeping the utilities. I also owe this, this, this, and this, and those are in front of you to get paid whenever I do get on my feet again. Now, you can threaten legal action, but we both know that such judgments are uncollectable against someone of my income level, so you'd just be wasting your legal fees. I will get around to paying you someday, but definitely not today. Want to try again in a month?"

 

This is kinda mis-leading. You can't be arrested for not paying debts, per se, but you can be arrested for not following court orders after the person that has judgment against you requests a hearing in aid and you don't show up...

I have more legal details but it's boring. PM me if interested.

 

Show up to the hearings. Accept all judgments, but refuse to sign any sort of non-mandatory repayment deal. The judge could rule that you have the money and must pay, in which case you should have been doing it all along.

More likely, as a journalist, you have no assets and your income is right around the exemption level. That would make you more or less uncollectable.

Just never blow off a court date and you're fine.

 

Exactly but people in Kentucky are retarded so they get arrested. They're the same people who don't show up to court and get a default judgment against them with a huge interest rates and attorney fee's out the ass.

 

Folks, in a lot of cases, debt collectors aren't working for credit card companies. Understand that many take things too far, but the sorts they're chasing have heard more stories than many police officers.

The fact that someone's credit is destroyed should be enough of a deterrent in a capitalist society like ours but, alas, it isn't. Hence, why some of these companies are forced to extreme measures. They just need to get it right more often.

I had someone try to do that to me at work. What they DIDN'T realize is that the phone extension was new to me ... they were trying to go after my predecessor. Once I finally called them back to explain this, the calls promptly stopped. It's not usually that easy - some of them make "dogged" look tame - but in this case it was.

Worse, for those who should have been paying in the first place, the interests and various fees levied against them will make those who thought they were being wiseacres wish they had done so. And, come time to finance a vehicle or dwelling, it will come back to haunt them. Never mind that everything else they can't buy with cash or a check will cost them more.