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Personal Finance From a Biblical Perspective

How to Negotiate With Collection Agencies

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If you have one or more outstanding collection accounts you’re not alone. With unpaid medical balances becoming more common (higher deductibles, uncovered expenses, etc), and bankruptcy more difficult to file since the 2005 Bankruptcy Reform Act, more accounts are slipping into collection than ever. Can you learn how to negotiate with collection agencies?

You can’t make them go away – not until you pay off the accounts they’re collecting on – but you can keep them at a reasonable distance. You’ll need to do this for a while, at least until you are in a position to settle the accounts once an for all. Here are some ways to do this.

Collection Agencies: Don’t Engage Them!

Here’s a tip that will save you a lot of time and anxiety, even if it won’t make the collection agents go away entirely: don’t engage them at all! That means that you don’t accept or open any mail from them, nor do you speak with them on the phone. A collection agent’s job is to harass you into paying your debt, and they will not leave you alone until you do. Anytime you open a letter or accept a phone call, you are inviting harassment into your life. But you are under no legal obligation to do so.

You already know that you owe the debt – the collection agent’s barrage of phone calls isn’t going to make you pay it any sooner. In fact, it could very well have the opposite effect. At some point, they will almost certainly threaten you with legal action – most of which is an empty threat. But they will do it because they know that some people succumb to it.

By “getting under your skin” – and doing it constantly – collection agencies only succeed in wearing you down, sapping your ability to come up with the money to pay the bill at all.

Your job in the arrangement is to make sure that that doesn’t happen. You need to keep your head clear – and clear of the collection agent – so that you can concentrate your full efforts on saving up the money that will make them finally go away.

Don’t Talk To Them Unless You Are Ready To Settle

The only time that you should consider taking a phone call from a collection agent, or even opening up a letter from one, is when you are finally in a position to settle the account. Any discussions that you will have with them before you’re in this position will be completely meaningless.

When you are in a position to settle, you’ll need to go on the offensive. The collection agent will attempt to get every dollar out of you that he possibly can, so the threats may continue even as you attempt to settle. Ignore the threats, and familiarize yourself with the Federal Trade Commission’s Federal Debt Collection Practices Act, or FDCPA. Your knowledge of federal law will force the collection agent to behave, as their ability to collect on a debt is specifically limited by the law.

By the time you are ready to settle, you should make sure that the exchange proceeds as a negotiation between equals. Never allow yourself to be intimidated by the collection agent. If you are, the entire process will only go worse for you.

Be Ready To Make A Partial Settlement

Part of the reason why you will avoid any contact with the collection agent until you’re ready to settle is so that you can allow some time to pass between the time the collection agent gets the account and the time you actually settle.

The longer that a debt is outstanding, the more negotiable the collection agent is likely to be. This is because collection agents are essentially commissioned salesman. They don’t make any money on a collection until the account is paid (which should help you to see why they like to harass people).

If months or years pass, the collection agent is likely to greet any offer by you with enthusiasm. You can use this to your advantage and offer to settle the account for less than the full amount. If the amount of the collection is $10,000, and you have $5,000 to settle the account, you start by offering very low number, such as $2,000.

The collection agent will always scoff and declare the first offer to be “impossible“. That is part of the negotiation game, and since you are prepared to go higher you’re in an excellent position to press your case. It is entirely possible that by starting at a lowball number, you might end up settling for say $4,000, even though you are prepared to pay $5,000.

Why would the collection agent accept 50% or less of the debt? It’s the old saying, half a loaf is better than none. No where is that saying more in play than the collection business. The original creditor has already pulled out of the process – that’s why the collection agent is there in the first place. But many debts placed for collection never settle and simply go cold and disappear. Collection agents are aware this, which is why they are usually settled for less than the full amount.

Never Send Money Unless You Get An Agreement In Writing First

This point is absolutely critical – never sent any money to a collection agent unless you have a written agreement that the payment settles the account in full, or that it represents your complete understanding that an agreed-upon payment plan will in fact settle the account in full.

Don’t drop the ball on this step! Collection agents will use every tactic available – ethical or unethical – to get as much money out of you as possible. Never accept a collection agents verbal agreement as it is not legally enforceable. Have the agent email, fax or mail (preferred method) the written agreement before you send any money. The written agreement should not only spell out the terms of the settlement, but it should also specifically reference the debt in question as well as any account numbers connected with it, and be signed by the agent or his superior.

Also get an agreement from the collection agency that it will remove the collection from your credit report from all three credit repositories. You’ll want to get this agreement in writing as well, so that you can send it to the three credit repositories (Trans Union, Experian, and Equifax) in the event that the collection agency fails to do so.

Have you ever settled with a collection agency? How did work out for you?

The Treasury Department’s New Regulation To Protect Social Security Benefits

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Recently, the United States Treasury Department put a new rule into place that seeks to protect those the garnishment of Social Security benefits. When you are collecting, and depending on, Social Security benefits, it can be extremely difficult to deal with debt collectors. To then have your bank garnish your Social Security benefits, can put you in a position where you have very few options.

According to an article on Market Watch:

Before the new rule, when debt collectors pursuing an unpaid debt secured a court-ordered garnishment, the bank often would simply freeze the money in the debtor’s account, whether or not it included federal payments, such as Social Security benefits, said Margot Saunders, an attorney with the National Consumer Law Center.

The easiest thing for a bank to do in this instance is to freeze the entire account, regardless of the source of the deposits. The problem with that type of response, is that it can leave the recipient – oftentimes an elderly person – with no way to pay for basic living expenses.

There are actually rules and exemptions in place, which govern when and how a debt collector can garnish Social Security benefits, but as Saunders points out, “It’s very, very difficult for an elderly person to step through the hoops that are required for exemptions… In the meantime, while they’re going through that process, they have no money.”

Having all of your money frozen at once can lead to financial disaster for someone in a social welfare program.

A New Rule For Banks Ordered To Garnish Social Security Benefits

In an effort to help beneficiaries avoid undue hardship, the Treasury Department will now require banks to verify whether the money in the accounts came from an automatic deposit of federal benefits (including Social Security). If so, the bank is required to leave two months’ worth of federal benefits in the account untouched, so that they can be used to cover living expenses.

However, if the benefits were deposited more than two months in the past, or if they were deposited by check (no matter how recent), then the bank is free to freeze the entire account. The recipient will then have to follow the normal procedure for claiming an exemption in their state.

You may not think that there are a lot of people who are affected by this, but the National Consumer Law Center says otherwise:

NCLC estimates that more than 1 million federal-payment recipients annually had their benefits garnished in a bank account. That estimate is based on “the number of complaints and concerns we get from lawyers around the country,” Saunders said. She said legal-aid lawyers cite such garnishment as among the most significant consumer problems, second only to mortgage-related issues.

This new rule will be a welcome relief to many who were already struggling to make ends meet, and pay off debt at the same time. Whether they be dealing with student loan repayments, credit card debt, or medical debt, they will now be given a little bit of breathing room while they consider their options.

Garnishment Of Your Social Security Benefits By The Government

Keep in mind that this new law only governs court orders directed at banks (after the benefits have been paid). It is still possible to have money withheld from your payments at the Federal level, before you receive a disbursement.

According to the Social Security Administration, here are a few common circumstances in which the Federal government can garnish Social Security benefits:

  • To enforce child support or alimony obligations under Section 459 of the Social Security Act;
  • Internal Revenue Service (IRS) can levy against benefits to collect unpaid Federal taxes according to Section 6334(c) of the Internal Revenue Code;
  • IRS can collect taxes due by levying up to 15 percent of a monthly benefit until the debt is paid;
  • IRS allows beneficiaries to have a portion of their check withheld to satisfy a current year Federal income tax liability according to Section 3402 (P) of the Internal Revenue Code;
  • Other Federal agencies can collect money from benefits to pay a non-tax debt owed to that agency according to the Debt Collection Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-134); and
  • Under the Mandatory Victim Restitution Act, certain civil penalties provide the right to garnish benefits under 18 USC 3613.

This list looks similar to the circumstances in which your tax refund can be garnished. This is why it is so important to take care of all debt before you retire, and never become a cosigner for a loan.

It is much easier to deal with these issues when you have a lot of options, instead of waiting until bankruptcy and debt are all that you have in front of you.

photo by DonkeyHotey

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