When a person with a balance due on a credit card stops making at least the minimum payment for a number of months, the company in charge of that debt will start calling this customer on a regular basis. The company starts with its own customer service representatives and then is likely to transfer the account to its own collections department if the issue is not resolved in some manner.
From there, the account usually is transferred to a debt collection agency if the cardholder cannot stick with any sort of payment arrangement offered by the credit card company. This individual needs at least one good tip debt collector services generally will follow when the cardholder demands it.
People who work for collection agencies are trained to acquire a high payment up front if possible. If the cardholder has no way of providing this, a short-term payment agreement with high payments usually is the next possibility offered. This often winds up being a trap for the individual dealing with pressure from the collection agency.
The person may be afraid of getting sued and having income garnished or a lien placed on bank accounts. He or she may agree to payments that are not affordable in an attempt to prevent this from happening.
It’s usually better to firmly request a lower payment that the person can make regularly instead of agreeing to payments that are impossible. If the payment agreement is broken, the credit card company may send the account to a law firm.
Now the individual has worse problems, since the likelihood of a lawsuit is imminent. The collection agency may agree to these lower payments for a temporary time frame, such as six months, after which they will want to revisit the situation.
Another tip debt collector agencies will follow is for the individual to schedule monthly payments on a date that works best for the budget. The agency will generally allow the person to postpone the payment on occasion as long as it is posted before the end of the month.
The cardholder should be cooperative with the collections process, but the agency must cooperate with the consumer as well.
Thank you for sharing such an informational article. This is really very helpful.