DEBT COLLECTION AGENTS ARE ON THE CLOCK TOO

Copyright © 2010 John Gliha 

Legally, a collection call is considered soliciting.  They are selling you on the benefits of paying them what they say you owe, in exchange for them not continuing to harass you, not making any more claims on your credit history and/or not suing you.  That is the implication anyway, some will even say it.  Consequently, the callers are monitored for their productivity.  A call without a “sale” (your verbal commitment to make payments) is not productive and they might call you again.  However, a call without a sale that substantially exceeds the average call time for most calls of this nature will result in your account being placed on the “do not call” list or listed as “uncollectible,” in which case you will no longer receive any calls. 

This is a little time-consuming, but it works very well.  Your objective, if you choose to follow this strategy, is to keep the caller on the phone for as long as possible.  The trick is to never discuss the collection account, but make it appear as if you are sincere.  Talk about politics, collection laws, the evil banking system and your political opinion about the Federal Reserve Board.  Talk as if you are not listening to them, or that you are not smart enough to address their specific questions.  For example,  

Bill Collector:  “Sir, I need to know when you intend on paying this bill.”   

You:  “You people are all the same, you called me last week.  You know, this banking system has to go, it’s nothing but evil.” 

It does not really matter what you say, just avoid discussing the collection account, do not give any payment information, do not make any commitments to pay, and sound sincere.  If it sounds like the caller is going to end the call, ask for a supervisor.  This could double the call time in many situations.  Many times you can ask them to hold for a few minutes and even pass the phone back and forth from yourself to your spouse and each take turns working the caller over.  Continue the conversation until they hang up.  Do not hang up on them because they will probably continue to call you. 

Remember that you are not talking to the actual person who wants to collect from you on the phone, but you are using the conversation to manipulate their telephone software.  I know this because for years I’ve subscribed to their trade journals and researched the advertisers and the software the telephony systems they sell to debt collection firms.  I know how their software works and I know how they conduct things like skip tracing. 

Skip tracing is when a debt collector contacts friends, neighbors or family members to obtain information about you, such as your new telephone number if you recently changed it to avoid collection calls.  The single best way to end the calls is to manipulate the system they are relying on to call you.