Along with an understanding of numbers, communication skills are
key to this career. "Communication skills are used daily when you make a collection
call or answer a collection call. They are also used in any correspondence
you send out," says collector Michelle Dunn.
When you're dealing with
angry people, be prepared for screaming, swearing and a click at the other
end of the phone. Of course, not everyone will be angry. Some will have tragic
stories of illness or a death in the family. Others may be as adept at dodging
their debts as you strive to be in collecting them.
Dunn recommends
learning to listen. "Debtors are always coming up with an excuse that will
throw you. You need to be prepared."
The following is part of the U.S.
Fair Debt Collections Practice Act. Read through these sections. How would
you respond to the situation at the end?
Definitions
The
term "debt collector" means any person who uses any instrumentality of interstate
commerce or the mail in any business, the principal purpose of which is the
collection of any debts, or who regularly collects or attempts to collect,
directly or indirectly, debts owed or due or asserted to be owed or due another.
The
term includes any creditor who, in the process of collecting his own debts,
uses any name other than his own which would indicate that a third person
is collecting or attempting to collect such debts.
For the purpose
of this section, such term also includes any person who uses any instrumentality
of interstate commerce or the mail in any business, the principal purpose
of which is the enforcement of security interests. The term does not include
--
(A) any officer or employee of a creditor while, in the name of
the creditor, collecting debts for such creditor;
(B) any person while
acting as a debt collector for another person, both of whom are related by
common ownership or affiliated by corporate control, if the person acting
as a debt collector does so only for persons to whom it is so related or affiliated
and if the principal business of such person is not the collection of debts;
(C)
any person while serving or attempting to serve legal process on any other
person in connection with the judicial enforcement of any debt; and
(D)
any nonprofit organization which, at the request of consumers, performs bona
fide consumer credit counseling and assists consumers in the liquidation of
their debts by receiving payments from such consumers and distributing such
amounts to creditors.
Communication in connection with debt collection
COMMUNICATION
WITH THE CONSUMER GENERALLY. Without the prior consent of the consumer given
directly to the debt collector or the express permission of a court of competent
jurisdiction, a debt collector may not communicate with a consumer in connection
with the collection of any debt --
(1) at any unusual time or place
or a time or place known or which should be known to be inconvenient to the
consumer. In the absence of knowledge of circumstances to the contrary, a
debt collector shall assume that the convenient time for communicating with
a consumer is after 8 a.m. and before 9 p.m. local time at the consumer's
location;
(2) if the debt collector knows the consumer is represented
by an attorney with respect to such debt and has knowledge of, or can readily
ascertain, such attorney's name and address, unless the attorney fails to
respond within a reasonable period of time to a communication from the debt
collector or unless the attorney consents to direct communication with the
consumer; or
(3) at the consumer's place of employment if the debt
collector knows or has reason to know that the consumer's employer prohibits
the consumer from receiving such communication.
You work for the ABC Chocolate Factory in the collections
department. Mrs. Smith is behind on her account to the tune of $1,500 for
fine chocolate for her candy store. She says the candy was stale and refuses
to pay.
She has hired an attorney, who recently sent a letter to you
explaining her dispute. You pick up the phone at 7:30 a.m. one day to call
Mrs. Smith at her home to see if you can settle the matter. Have you violated
the FDCPA?