Honest question here, where would I purchase some of this paper?
Inside the Dark, Lucrative World of Consumer Debt Collection
91–100 of 269 posts
Re: Inside the Dark, Lucrative World of Consumer Debt Collection
#92This is one of the most unbelievable articles I've ever read. If you didn't read it all the way through, do so over lunch or something; it's amazing. The idea of "millions of dollars" worth of debt being traded for around on thumb drives, and that all those thumb drives really contain are excel spreadsheets is mind boggling . Those people in those spreadsheets are real people , and they're being completely duhumanize…
> The idea of "millions of dollars" worth of debt being traded for around on thumb drives, and that all those thumb drives really contain are excel spreadsheets is mind boggling. Those people in those spreadsheets are real people, and they're being completely duhumanized.
The moral concerns aside... this is the question to "why haven't we replaced excel yet."
Re: Inside the Dark, Lucrative World of Consumer Debt Collection
#93I was called by a collector once. Old medical bill, the clinic had sent it to an old address and the mail forwarding had expired. Why they never called or tracked me down I don't know, but they eventually sold it to a collector who had no trouble finding my phone number. When they called I was confused at first, then remembered and realized it was legit, paid it, end of story. They were utterly professional and court…
Medical debt rankles me like nothing else. The US, supposedly the most advanced nation on Earth has the worst notion of all: health care for profit. Simply evil. Health care is a basic human right. Full stop. Health care should never be based on one's ability to pay. Never. I pray I see socialised medicine in the US in my lifetime. If Hilary Clinton gets elected, the push for this will be stronger than the thin edge…
Um, there are more not-for-profit hospitals than there are for-profit hospitals, which doesn't dramatically change the pricing equation.
http://www.aha.org/research/rc/stat-studies/fast-facts.shtml
One man's profit is another man's stash for bonuses and building a new wing of the hospital.
Re: Inside the Dark, Lucrative World of Consumer Debt Collection
#94Advice from someone who works on debt collection software for a living: never, ever let a check bounce. Returned checks operate in a legal loophole that circumvents most of the consumer protection afforded to regular debt. Collection agencies can begin pursuing it immediately, can begin reporting it to the credit bureaus immediately, and the interest rate they're allowed to charge on it is ridiculous.
Especially not if you are in Dubai, where you will be imprisoned for bouncing a cheque.
Re: Inside the Dark, Lucrative World of Consumer Debt Collection
#95This is one of the most unbelievable articles I've ever read. If you didn't read it all the way through, do so over lunch or something; it's amazing. The idea of "millions of dollars" worth of debt being traded for around on thumb drives, and that all those thumb drives really contain are excel spreadsheets is mind boggling . Those people in those spreadsheets are real people , and they're being completely duhumanize…
You are totally right! +1.
The article had me at "stolen".
If you owe a bit of money, some of the dipshits that call you may actually have misappropriated the collection account and are not connected to the original debtor in any way, who did not receive and will not receive a red cent.
This passing of the buck helps to explain why numerous agencies may be involved: people get calls from various toms, dicks and harrys about the same debt.
The fact that debt is being purchased cheaply is totally believable. Because when people don't want to pay, it takes work to extract money from them. Some people really don't want to pay, because they believe they have been wronged. No matter how much effort you sink into it, there won't be any income. Some people will pay the full debt, after a bit of effort. But that effort cuts into the revenue. If it costs $400 worth of effort to collect $1000, then you only collected $600 in reality. There is a very real risk that it may cost $999 to collect $1000, so you're left with a buck. Because of this uncertainty, it makes perfect sense to sell the $1000 debt to someone for a mere $83 and make it their problem. The $83 is a sure thing, and better than nothing, whereas the $1000 debt could well be nothing.
Re: Inside the Dark, Lucrative World of Consumer Debt Collection
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
They pursue a judgement on sums up around thousands of dollars where the charges are clearly valid. There is no way that's going to happen on some piddly $400 amount that you have documented is substantially BS. What I'm talking about is people I've seen in recent threads freaked out about some comcast charge affecting their credit report. Don't waste a minute of your time dealing with them or the credit bureaus. Jus…
This is beyond idiotic. My credit score is HORRIBLE due to little things like this accumulating in my youth. Pay everything, always -- always pay -- always. It WILL come back to fuck you over just when you need those extra few points.
Pay it off and go without credit for a few years... your score will be trashed.
Re: Inside the Dark, Lucrative World of Consumer Debt Collection
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, but on the other hand, let's say you run a small business. At some point you have customers who don't pay. What do you do? Write it off as a total loss? 1/12 is better than nothing.
It's not 1/12th of the debt, it's 1/1200th of the debt.
If someone sells you debt at 1/1200, that simply means they believe the debt is very bad and unlikely to collect. Even at that price, you could be a total sucker, since perhaps you will not collect a penny.
Re: Inside the Dark, Lucrative World of Consumer Debt Collection
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not 1/12th of the debt, it's 1/1200th of the debt.
OK, I agree that part is a little ridiculous but only in the "why bother" sense.
It's probably the same thing like gambling to those people. Or penny stock trading. The reasoning is probably like this: at 1/1200 rate, I can cheaply buy a whole crapload of debt. And based on the time-honored principle "if you throw enough shit at a wall, some of it will stick", if just a small percentage of those debts pays out, I will make a profit even if the rest are junk.
Re: Inside the Dark, Lucrative World of Consumer Debt Collection
#991. Get loan 2. Don't pay it back 3. Ask debt collector friend to buy debt 4. Pay him off Why would this not work?
Debt collectors usually do not have the ability to target specific people's debt in the debt packages that they buy.
Re: Inside the Dark, Lucrative World of Consumer Debt Collection
#100And then there's those of us who have non-existent debt sold on to these people.
About 12 years ago, I started getting letters from a debt agency about a medical bill that I did not owe. Letters that I forwarded to the insurance company.
Then the phone calls started, with people trying to convince me to pay a bill I didn't owe.
It took about 9 months to get it sorted out. What had happened is that the doctor had improperly billed the insurance, for a fee they had already billed for, and the insurance refused to pay it.
The doctor's office sent it to collections. And the collections agency would only stop harassing me if I got the doctors office to call them and admit they had billed incorrectly.
That was not fun.