My Experience With Collection Agencies

by Amy Herbeck
(Fillmore, NY USA)

I have had a lot of ups and downs in my life, and collection agencies are definitely the down side.

I have made attempt after attempt to pay my bills that have gone to collection. But the frustration that I feel almost makes me not want to pay a cent to anyone.

Very few collection agencies that I have dealt with have been decent or respectful. The ones that are willing to honestly try to help me repay a debt are the ones that get my attention.

Most places call and want the same or more money than I owed. Asking for the same is one thing, asking for twice as much won't get me to pay, no matter how hard they try or threaten.

And if I try to come up with a payment plan with them, they want service charges for each payment I make, usually ten or fifteen dollars. One even wanted 100 dollars out of each paycheck plus a 15 dollar "service fee" just for taking my money.

People don't pay bills because they can't, not because they don't care. Collection agencies could do themselves a favor by figuring out a way for people to pay off bills a little at a time in an affordable manner.

In this day and age I am sure collection agencies are making tons of money due to the amount of people out of work, and they need to understand that many people are at the point where they don't care. Threats and harassment will get collections nowhere, coming up with a way to actually help people would change everything.