Have you ever wondered why collection
agencies keep calling you more often? There are numerous
situations that credit collectors use to get the money
you owe.
But let's start from the beginning when
you get your credit card. Obviously everyone knows that
you need to pay your credit card on time. However,
situation is not always the same when it comes repaying
your credit card debt.
Once you are late on your credit card,
Credit Card Company will alert you and gives you a
chance to work with them to pay off your debt. This is
the best chance ever, if you credit card company is
willing to work with you. In most cases you will receive
late notices and your credit score will start to take a
hit. If you are one day late on your credit card
payment, your credit card company will report this late
as 30 days late on your credit report. Afterwards; you
may receive another notice to call their credit
department to help you out with your situation or work
out some re-payment plan.
If there is no action from you or credit
card Company, your unpaid balance may end up in
collector's hands. Collections agencies are commission
based most of the time. They have pre-arranged profit
negotiations with credit card companies and typically
credit card companies will take 40%-60% from your
balance you own. If collector is able to collect more
from you, they keep larger chuck of the profit for
themselves.
Credit card companies are very serious
about privacy of their data and most of the time dictate
how your information should be transferred before
collector can view your name, address, SSN number, etc..
Some of the top requests are SSL (Secure Server Locket),
128 bit encryption, FTP encryption and password, etc.
With all of this and more, there are few credit
collection agencies that spend money on more
sophisticated software as it is very costly for
them.
Once your data is opened or extracted from
credit card company list, collection agencies use their
own scoring model to determine how quickly you are able
to repay your debt if they call you. They look into your
credit score, how many tradeline you have, balances,
late payment if any and so on. Upon all the data, their
own credit scoring model will give them number as how
quickly you are able to repay your debt.
But did you ever wonder why they keep
calling you more and more? Collection agencies will more
likely call more those will higher credit scores than
those will lower credit score. If you have a good credit
score, you are a high candidate for a repayment or
settlement. You are more likely to settle than someone
with lower credits score. However, if you have good
credit score, collection agency will settle around 40%
of the balance, as you owe them 60%. When someone with
low credit score and same balance may be able to settle
at 60%, as they will owe them 40%.
If you have a good credit score, you are
more willing to maintain your credit rating. Collection
agency knows this and offers you only around 40%
settlement as well as they will call you more often to
collect.
Once you have a low credit score,
collection agency will try to reach you few times but
eventually gives up on you for a few months as they know
that you will not repay it back quickly for them to
claim a profit.
Most financial professionals will tell you
that maintaining your credit score is very important,
however collection companies exploit that and use it
against you. Yes, they are willing to even settle at
60%, but they will not do it as they will loose their
profit. This is a game with numbers and profits.
If you have a good credit and fall behind,
work with your credit card credit department and make
sure they will not turn your unpaid balance to
collection agencies, otherwise you will face numerous
phone calls for a credit you build so well.