April 8,2009
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Buffeted by Credit Card Debt Collectors?, Pt.1
With 78,000 complaints per year, we must do something.Ever feel like you're George Clooney and have just crossed Benedict who, now has just reduced the world to one small Ocean – you? If you're deep in credit card dept, then you're not alone. Here, we've even got debt collectors coming after us posing as police and threatening us with immediate arrest if we don't pay up. One great film series "Oceans xx" with great acting and the hope that the credit card cops are on the wane, we mustn't be so naive as to believe that better real-life days are coming soon. Just last year, over 78,000 of these battle-fatigued credit card consumers have complained to the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) with concerns about collection agencies and their high-pressure tactics.
The government has provided credit card consumers with some forms of protection from these practices if we'll only appropriate them. Perhaps the biggest problem is that we don't know what to do. Here are some tips that may help some good people to escape some of the unnecessary ugliness and treacherous practices exhibited by some ‘bad apple' credit card debt collection agencies:
One of the few indicators found today for turning around the spiraling credit card demise is a new tactic employed by a few ‘good apples' is the softening of repayment terms. Unfortunately, however, there are still some others trying to collect who ‘just don't get it'. They only understand hard-ball and increased-pressure tactics and try to squeeze ‘blood from the turnip'.
For one thing, when credit card debts are turned over to collection agencies, things can change quickly. These people in general seem have to have a very different mindset. Of the 78,000 victims who complained to the FTC last year, about 24,000 of them complained that collectors were demanding way more in payments then they could afford. The collections agencies went after bankruptcy victims just as aggressively, even after the debts had been discharged.