Bankruptcy

Inside the Belly of the Beast - How Debt Collectors Think

By Jonathan

Back in February, 2007, I wrote a blog post entitled Understand the Psychology of Debt Collection Tactics and Avoid Being Manipulated.  In this article I noted that bill collectors use techniques identified by psychologists to trigger guilt and other emotional responses that might cause you to send money to a particular bill collector.

For example, bill collectors will try to persuade you to verbally authorize a draft from your checking account because such an action is immediate.  Presumably the collection statistics for individuals who promise to mail a check are significantly less impressive than those who authorize a direct payment.  Never authorize anyone to access your account electronically, by the way - it is a bad idea for many reasons.

In any case, my Bankruptcy Law Network college Andy Miofsky recently posted an interesting article in the Debt Law Network blog entitled "How to Read Your Debt Collector's Mind."  In this article, Andy identifies a number of freely avalable web sites published by and for the debt collection industry that reveal many of these psychological tricks.

If you are dealing with debt collectors you need to treat negotiations as a business transaction and the resources Andy identifies can help you in this regard.

Full post as published by The BK Blawg on January 06, 2009 (boomark / email).