How I Feel About Collection Agencies

by Kristin
(Illinois)

I have never been the type of person to really use credit cards let alone not pay my bills. But when I lost my job things changed. And even though I'm ashamed to admit it, I have had several encounters with collection agencies.

Some of which were a good experience, but mostly bad. Things that do not work for me is when I get a letter in the mail from a creditor and the bill that was originally less than $1000 is now over $2000. If these people want me to pay my bill raising the amount is not a good start to get on my good side. This makes me want to throw it away and never think about it again. Things that do work for me is having the creditor work with me, using empathy and compassion.

Not all people are here to rip people off, especially me. I love that I want to pay my bills and they should too. So if I call about the letter received this should be in good faith and the conversation should not start out with the creditor belittling me or telling me I need to pay all the money right then.

If I would have paid the bill in the first place than I would not have had to do that so why would I now. To sum it up, creditors need to not be so mean, and make payment plans that work for everyone. Lower interest also. Someone who can not afford their bills will never pay off anything with a 22% interest rate.