The Economy Today

Ring. Ring. Ring.

You know who is calling. It's the fourth time today, and ironically enough it's during dinner time. That pit in the bottom of your stomach starts to churn. You know who it is: the collection agency.

You also know that if you answer that phone that your dinner will be ruined. But your dinner is already ruined just thinking about it. What do you do? Why don't they just go away?

If you have ever had a collection agency come after you for a past due debt, you can relate to the above situation. These unholy hell hounds are unleashed when creditors cannot get you to pay a debt that is owed. Now, they don't care WHY you can't pay, they just know you don't. And there are many good reasons for not being able to pay. If you lost your job, you may not be able to pay a credit card bill because you are focused on keeping your family fed with what little you do have. If a family member is gravely ill (say with cancer or some other life threatening disease), you may not be paying because you are doing the right thing by taking care of their medical needs. Either way, creditors and bill collectors don't care. They don't typically have a sense of ethics or nobility or responsibility.

With that being said, let's examine the creditor and collection agency relationship and finds the weak points in it.

According to DebtorKungFu.com , a debtor's rights informational website, collection agencies are NOT your original creditor. They are independent third parties. They do not typically own your debt; they are merely trying to collect someone else's debt. They are governed by both state and federal laws, specifically the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

A collection agency is hired by a creditor and given full rights to help collect a debt. They are tasked with doing whatever is necessary (and lawful) to get you to pay. Oftentimes, though, collectors step across the line and abuse and harass debtors both mentally and emotionally. Keep in mind, this is what they are paid to do and they are VERY good at it. They will try to make you feel 2 emotions: fear or anger. But that is a topic for later on.

Now the key to the creditor-collection agency relationship is simply this: money.

Creditors are outsourcing their headaches on collecting a debt hoping to make a profit once the collector gets the money from the debtor. The collection agency makes a profit by earning a commission on the amount of money they collect. That is why collection agents always try to get the most amount of money out of you they can. They more they collect, the more they make.

Key #1--Thus, if you can find a way to take away the motivation for having such a relationship(i.e., remove everyone's profit), you will get rid of your collection agency.

Knowing this alone is the first step in the art of making collection agencies absolutely hate collecting money from you.

But knowing how to make collection agencies stop wanting to collect your debt is only part of the equation. Actually GETTING them to want to stop contacting you is another thing entirely. For that, I give you part 2 of this article: How to Make Collection Agents Hate Collecting from You.

If you cannot find part 2 of this article, please visit DebtorKungFu.com for more information.

The author is just your average Joe. He is married with no kids, trying to put his wife through medical school. Since the downturn in the economy, he watched his credit go from A+ to F and back again. His experiences are first hand in dealing with collection agencies and tricks he learned to use against them. As a result, he founded DebtorKungFu.com to help others who find themselves dealing with aggressive collection agencies.