SORRY ALL - THIS IS A LONG ONE.......
Over the last week or so I've been busy catching up on news on the CT Forum and have been saddened by some of the content. One guy who uses a name similar to my friend Ron Bidwell (hi Ron) and another called James Riddle (Jimmy Riddle...oh, come on!). This forum should be used by people within the credit industry to discuss topics professionally, without resorting to personal criticisms and accusations of bullying. The debt collection industry, of which I'm proud to have been part of for well over 20 years is being heavily criticised and accused of bullying. That's a very strong word and one I resent being used. There are also points made about debt collectors not being able to force people to pay them. We don't use bullying and we can't force people - it's all about trying to get the customer to honour their legal obligation to pay a debt back. Don't accuse us of not using courts to secure payment when the people who owe the money are already in the wrong in a legal sense as they are to all intents and purposes in breach of their contract. It works both ways.
To those (including Jimmy boy) who make these accusations, quite simply, you are wrong. You have been watching too many soaps, where debt collectors are always portrayed as a big bloke called Vinny who carries a baseball bat. This industry is professional, OK there may be some occasions where collectors get it wrong, but given the 20 odd million debts which are outstanding, even a very small pecentage of problems with over-eager collectors would result in a reasonably large number of complaints, but even so, the big pitcure is that this would be a small fraction of the accounts which the DCAs are collecting on.
The DCAs are said to have no powers. This is also wrong, as what they use is the power of persuasion. Persuasion that is, to remind the customer to pay their debt, a debt which they freely entered into when they borrowed the money or acquired the credit. The DCAs are ACTING ON BEHALF OF THE CLIENT, usually a bank or card company.
The clients ask the DCAs to assist and secure payment without resorting to court action, which could ultimately end up with the debtor paying more in terms of costs and fees. The added problem for the debtor is that their credit rating will be severely impacted and in 4 or 5 years time when they can't get any credit or a mortgage for anything, they will rue the day they secured their "victory" over a DCA (and their client) by telling them to, well, go away and they now have a CCJ (or CCJs) against them.
People like Jimmy and Don should look at the legislation to protect people, look at the CSA's code of conduct and understand that the OFT has indeed taken action against companies who overstep the mark.
I am sick and tired of looking at the same argument, in fact any question or discussion point recently raised my members of the forum seems to disintegrate due to these people making accusations. We are all human, we accept that people have fallen on hard times, we accept you can't get blood out of a stone and we will avoid taking legal action if we can to save time, effort and in particular money, which the debtor will have to pay in the end.
We also accept that people are trying to pay whenver they can, but there is a core element of people who will avoid paying their debts and you will never, ever see them on any website making noises as they are still hiding behind the couch when even the bailiff comes calling.
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