This is A Serious guide to the handling of
Debt collectors’ phone calls and
subsequent actions .
South African perspective
This is not tongue in cheek - this is totally legal and within all your rights
Print this guide
out and keep it handy. It can save you a lot of grieve.
No one says that you do not have to pay legal debt. We are not debating that point here.
This guide has the purpose of YOU taking control of the situation and taking the
control away from anyone calling you. It
also has the benefit of you determining whether the debt is legally yours and
has not prescribed.
YOU MUST CHANGE
YOUR ROLE FROM VICTIM TO AGGRESOR – YOU MUST TAKE CONTROL
Follow these instructions diligently and without wavering
from the steps in any way.
Always keep paper and pen handy. It is advisable that you keep a little
notebook handy for this purpose.
THE FOLLOWING IS
CRITICAL :
MAKE SURE YOU ASK THE QUESTIONS
IN THE ORDER IT IS GIVEN HERE !
THE REASON FOR THIS IS THAT SHOULD THE CALLER BECOME AWARE OF YOUR
INTENTION TO TRAP THEM THEY MIGHT PUT THE PHONE DOWN. IF YOU ASK YOUR QUESTIONS IN THIS ORDER YOU
WILL BY THEN HAVE THEIR NAME AND COMPANY DETAILS FOR FURTHER ACTION. ( SEE BOTTOM FOR ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE*)
Once you get to the email status you
will start to find backtracking – they don’t want to go there and might just
put the phone down.
Note down the date and exact time...........this comes in
handy when you lodge complaints.
THE CALL
1.
You answer the call.
2.
Caller asks you to identify yourself. NEVER DO
THIS. Your answer “ You called me, first identify yourself by
giving me the following information. : ( Write all this down diligently) If during this initial discussion the party
on the other side wants to say or ask
anything insist on them giving you the details – if this fails JUST
PUT THE PHONE DOWN ! – They will soon get the message. )
a.
Give me your full name – spell it for me.
b.
Give me your
telephone number. Repeat to make sure you have it correct
c.
Give me the full name and location of your firm
– spell it for me.
d.
Give me your email address – spell it for me.
e.
Thank them and say : I will send you an email (
I will give you the full details of how you go about this afterwards)
f.
At this point kill the conversation and
put the phone down. Any
future calls you handle it as per point “d”
g.
Do not waver from this in any way
– no matter how insistent they are. You now have their details and you can now
lodge a complaint with the council for debt collectors if applicable.(A guide to how to do this a bit
later)
THE FOLLOW UP
EMAIL
Draft and send the debt collector an email – Again keep
diligently to these guidelines. Do not volunteer any information. – NEVER. Do not imply that you know of any debt quoted
and do not admit liability – NEVER ! ( I use this template in all instances-
Debt collectors’ systems are call centre driven and it is going to take time
for them to answer this properly. By
sending them an email you are creating proof of interaction and you will have a
paper trail.
1.
Subject
: “Your telephone call to me today
refers” - NOTHING ELSE
2.
Do not quote account numbers or ID numbers – The
person who phoned you should have all those details. Do not acknowledge the correctness of ID
numbers or account numbers.
3.
Make sure your email contain the following words
in the first instance : “Without prejudice
and all rights reserved”
4.
“You phoned me regarding something and I would like you to give me full details as follows :
a.
Your company’s
registration number with the council for debt collectors
b.
Your personal registration number with the
council for debt collectors.
(You can now verify this live on the website of the council)
c.
Details
of the alleged debt.
d.
A copy of the latest statement regarding this
from the company claiming ownership of the alleged debt.
e.
As far as I am concerned this alleged debt
has prescribed. If you claim otherwise please supply proof of this. ( If it is the bank phoning you about
your recent p ayment of your car and you know you are in arrears this will not
be applicable) If it is anything that MIGHT
have prescribed use these words. – Remember you should not yet know what it is if you followed the instruction
about the call above – but you might suspect what it is)
You can now send this off or you can ask for the following – or you can
do this in a follow up email –( Remember the “Without prejudice and all rights
reserved clause in ALL emails)
f.
If you
did not already asked them ask them for their Council for debt collectors
registration number. ( you should be able to look this up on the website here:
g.
Ask the addressee of the email for his/her
personal debt collectors registration number. At the same link. Chances are 99.9% that the writer is not
registered and you can point this out to him/her stating that they have no right
to engage with you and request that all future communication be done by someone
WHO is registered.
h.
Ask them for a copy of their mandate to collect
on the alleged debt _ this is where you will find out whether they or anyone
else has bought the debt.
i.
Ask them for a copy of the original signed instrument
of debt of the alleged debt. Not a copy
of such an instrument – a copy of the actual one you allegedly signed,
Chances
are that this is the last you will hear from them – Their systems are 99% not
geared to handle this type of query. And
just stick to the rules about telephone calls. DO NOT ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS
OR RESPOND TO ANYTHING ON THE PHONE . DO
NOT BE DRAWN INTO ANY TYPE OF DISCUSSION ON THE PHONE – You do not have access
to the recording and they will try and use it against you.
Complaints against debt collectors:
There is a comprehensive guide on this on the website of the
Council for debt collectors here :
·
Steps
to be taken afterwards:
If you followed the
steps handling a call from a debt collector diligently you should have at least
the name and contact details of the caller and the company. If you need more details you can just look
them up on the internet.
Now go onto the website and check if the
company is registered and if the caller is registered.
Chances are that the
company will be registered but not the person. – As a rule of thumb these
companies only register the directors and one or two managers.
You now have the
upper hand – They have committed a crime by allowing an unregistered employee
engage with you. You can (if you feel
that way inclined) lay such a charge with the police. I would just send them an email and tell them
you intend doing that and request them to stay away from them
As I Said before:
Change your role from victim to aggressor !
(An open invitation to anyone still having serious problems with a debt collector to email me personally at johnbrandow@mweb.co.za)
No comments:
Post a Comment