Debt Collectors Try to Put on a Friendlier Face

Just in time for a recession, the debt collection industry is working to shed its reputation for remorselessly hounding people.

Oh, the collectors still want the money. But now they would like to be seen as helpful and sympathetic, even a force for good.

They have started calling the indebted "our customers." They are pushing consumer tips on the ideal way to respond when a collector comes calling (basically: pay up). They note that debt collecting is an old American tradition. (Abraham Lincoln was a debt collector, some histories say.) They point out how, in a time of rising unemployment, they are hiring.

Antonio Satta / AP

"Collectors actually care about consumers," said Rozanne Andersen, general counsel of ACA International, the main industry trade group. "They want to teach consumers how to get out of debt. They’re trying to put themselves out of business."

If so, they are doing a poor job. So many people are in so much debt that the government says bill collecting is one of the fastest-growing businesses. By 2016, employment in it is projected to exceed half a million workers, up 23 percent in a decade.

When that projection was made in 2006, the times seemed comparatively good. Many Americans were paying their bills by refinancing their homes. That era is rapidly receding as home equity shrinks, foreclosures spiral upward and credit card defaults increase.

Figures are scant on the number of debtors or how much they owe, but it is clear that even mild downturns can push millions toward insolvency. The number of borrowers who were at least four months behind on a credit card, auto, house or installment loan doubled after the 2001 recession, to nearly seven million, according to credit bureau data analyzed by a Federal Reserve economist.

When a bill goes unpaid, the credit card company, hospital, store or other creditor usually makes efforts to collect. If that fails, the debt is assigned for collection or sold outright to third-party agencies. In 2005, 150,000 such debt collectors took in $51.4 billion, a PricewaterhouseCoopers study indicated.

A weak economy yields more work for third-party collectors but not necessarily higher revenue because unemployed debtors as a rule cannot pay. The industry thinking is that if collections can be made less adversarial, the success rate may go up.

"Most of our customers want to pay," said Gary Wood, president of DBA International, a group of debt buyers and collectors. "We want a relationship that will enable the customer to satisfy their need to pay what they owe and at the same time enable us to feed our families."

ACA International, through its foundation, is developing a personal financial management course, which it plans to post on its Web site next month and promote in national newspaper advertisements. A draft version offers a view from the collector’s perspective: It recommends that consumers who are victims of identify theft contact the Federal Trade Commission, but does not say that they can do the same if they have complaints about collectors. (They can.)

"You attract more flies with honey than with vinegar," the ACA foundation’s chairman, William E. Wilcox, said. "This is just a start."

There is another reason for the collection industry’s public relations push: tough economic times could bring more scrutiny of collectors by legislators and regulators.

"Collectors are in a jam," said Robert M. Hunt, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, who follows the industry. "The business is so big and the anecdotes so nasty, they can’t hide." Much better, Mr. Hunt said, to take the initiative.

Even in the relatively good times in the middle of this decade, complaints about the industry consistently rose. In 2006, the most recent figures available, the Federal Trade Commission received 69,204 complaints against third-party collectors, more than quadruple the number in 2001.

Many people said the collectors misrepresented the character, amount or legal status of a debt. Others said the collector harassed them by calling repeatedly or continually, used obscene language or threatened dire consequences if no payment was forthcoming.

CONTINUED: "Proud" To Be A Debt Collector

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