With the recent economic situation, more and more people are facing debt collections.  Even me.  Having exhausted all of my savings, and having almost no success finding a job with a decent wage, I have been getting the calls.

It’s nothing to fear, or be embarassed about, it can happen to anyone, through no fault of yours.  Since I have been somewhat successful in staving off the really bad stuff concerning collections, I thought I would share some information with you.

First off, if you do not want to make things right with your creditors, don’t read any furthur.  You must make the decision to make your creditors whole, by paying everything you owe them.  Anything short of that will get you nothing.  Defaulting and taking “the Deal” are bad bad bad choices.  The 20% on what you owe” deal sounds like a good deal, but, in that case, you might as well declare bankruptcy, as the evil credit reporting agencies will see that and adjust you credit score down just as much as a bankruptcy.

Second, be honest and truthful with the caller.  If you don’t have anything for them, SAY SO.  Tell them your situation and keep them updated when they call back.  That’s all you can do, and being honest with them will, atleast, get you some respect.  Remember, you signed a contract to repay them.  For the most part, the callers I have dealt with understand the situation.  There has been only one that I have had a problem with.  In that case I just told them, “you aren’t listening are you?”.

In the next post, I will show you some techniques to get them to hang up on you.