I know nothing about this industry, but is there a way you could tap into social media sites to shame people into paying you? Think if you took these leads and managed to friend people on facebook (maybe it only works for a few % of people), then you call them asking for payment and when they refuse or ignore you then you expose them.

An underhanded suggestion, sure, but it seems like the entire business is pretty underhanded.

The other thought would be try to use these leads to further some other business related to busto degens, such as debt consolidation, scratch off tickets, or penny auction sites. It seems like if you could become an affiliate for some of these other businesses that have synergy with your clientele then you could give yourself a much better shot at making it.

Wildly illegal, and if convicted of doing this you are looking at 6 figure fines and disbandment of the agency. You are legally only allowed to speak with a debtor about his debt, or his/her spouse. Nobody else is allowed to be told of the debt.

As for the affiliate idea... I'm not sure of the legality of it. It sounds like it could be profitable, but a bit to skeevy even for me I think.

I have nothing of value to add but found this to be a very interesting idea/business and hope you continue to update with your experience and subsequent knowledge. Good luck!

Andy Beal made the largest portion of his manies buying bad debt..

update?

After how many calls do you give up on the debt? Do you never give up until you sell it? I've always wondered what the deal is with collectors who call repeatedly once or twice a day every day Monday through Friday and sometimes Saturday.

Sometimes there are irregularities in the calls. Why are you calling me at 8:35a on one day but not until 2:40p the next? Twice in one day but only once the next?

I assume a debtor can expect to receive calls from the same number for 3 or 4 months max. Is there an average maximum in the industry? 5 months?

It's just hilarious how an agency thinks that it's an efficient technique to just auto dial a number 6-8 times a week for weeks on end even though the agency has never once heard a hello from the prospective debtor, nor have they ever left a voice mail.

In a world where everyone has a cell phone and many people use a cell phone as a primary phone number furthered by some people having numbers through Google Voice, I don't get how persistently calling someone is an effective debt collection method.

What's the deal with an account that has been charged off / written off by the original creditor? Besides the fact that some p*ssies may "feel badly" that they're in debt, what incentive does a debtor have to paying the collection agency? Would bringing up the fact that the original creditor has long since written off the account get the debt collector off one's back?

What insurance did you sell that you cant sell in NY?

Who is watching the infants while you are working?

My wife used to work for a huge law firm that did collections. I know the partners did very well.

Good Luck

Translation: I am a deadbeat.

Pay your bills deadbeat.

i had a collections agency calling me repeatedly asking about someone who shares my last name (unrelated to me) and refusing to take "i dont know anyone by that name" as an answer. Given what was said about social networks being against the law, is this practice also against the law?

Seems like such little threat to be sued anyway (in terms of the social networking thing earlier). If they are too busto to pay you, they are too busto for a lawyer.

Quick update: I just finished my move to Buffalo yesterday, so I haven't really been online much. I did have a very big revelation though that hopefully will help me do very well. Earlier in the thread I had talked about what debt I was going to buy and had settled on PayDayLoans because it was what we had experience in. I had also spoken about some debt from Aaron's Rent-to-Own store that was collected on by one agency already for 2.5 cents on the dollar. Before I pulled the trigger on the paydayloan I did some last minute research on the Aaron's debt, and after a few hours of digging found the wholesaler that bought the debt originally.
I contacted that wholesaler, and found that they were willing to sell me 10k of debt at 2cents on the dollar that had never been collected on by anybody. We managed to agree on a price of 1.8centsI have decided that this is the debt I am def. going to buy, and we have started drawing up a contract for it. There is clearly a 2nd hand market to sell the debt, since there was a broker trying to sell it 2nd hand for 2.5 cents, so I figure even if I crash and burn, I can resell the debt for almost what I paid for it.
So as of a few weeks from today, I will be paying about 10k for approx 550k worth of debt in the states of California and Louisiana. The LLC is formed, the collection software is ordered, and payment processing is set up. We still need phonelines and a few computers, but we should be up and running by the second week in August... I am going to answer a few questions in my next post.

The idea is never to give up on the debt until you collect on it or pay it. Why would you give up? It takes 10 seconds to dial a number and call it. The risk is nil and the reward is great. Collectors call at dif. days and times in order to try to change up the pattern. If you aren't home during the day on Tuesday, maybe you will be there Thursday evening.
There is no maximum amount of time you can be called. If I own your debt, I can call you for 10 years if I want. Even if the statute of limitations is up on your debt, I can still legally call and try to collect on it; you just have no incentive to pay it if you know the law. There is no average length of time collectors will call either, it really depends on the collection strategy of the company. With the new prime debt I will be buying from Aaron's, it comes to me 8months after last payment on the account. I will try to collect on it for 3 months and resell it before the debt becomes 1year old for maximum resale value. If the resale value is less than I expect, I will outsource the debt as 1agency debt to a collection firm and take a split on what they collect. Other agencies may call on the debt for years and just squeeze every dollar out of it.
Autodialing a number to collect IS an efficient technique. It may not be the most effective liquidation-wise, but collections is a huuuuge industry. Dialers are cost effective.
Calling people is an effective collection method. Your point is correct that lots of people don't have traditional numbers so lots of people won't be collected on, but if I'm buying debt for 1.8cents on the dollar, my breakeven after overhead is 2.5cents on the dollar collected. If I liquidate 5% the first month, I pay myself and my partner 500 a week salary, and also put about 10k profit into my corporation for more investments and expansion. You don't need to collect from a lot of people to make money in this business.
Bringing up the fact that the original creditor has charged off the account would do nothing to get the collectors off your back... They obviously know this because they bought the debt from the creditor. The collection agency now owns the debt. If you don't pay the collection agency, that is an additional debt you have defaulted on and the collection agency can further destroy your credit rating. You can also be sued and have a judgement brought against you; depending on the state you can have your wages garnished, and I have known of some people whose homes get sold to pay for debt they owe to collection agencies.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Perso...1#.UA7N5aNRyuE

Thanks for the good luck thoughts. I sold Final Expense insurance and Medicare Supplements in TN. The type of insurance isn't illegal in NY, but the effective marketing strategies employed are illegal here. The insurance is totally geared towards seniors, and mail/phone calls targeting seniors in NY is fiercely regulated. It makes it impossible to sell the insurance in NY as your only source of income.
I have a whole combination of people who will be watching the infants. My mom works as a teacher in a private high school, and has been there for 30 years. They have a free babysitting program for teachers children. Even though they are her grandchildren not her children, they said they will let them have free babysitting 2 days a week because of her tenure there. In addition, many of my friends here are in the nightclub industry, and are free during the day and have volunteered to watch some of the time. My parents will watch them on Saturdays when I work. It will still be a week to week schedule, but I'm hoping to only need to pay for babysitting 2days a week max... hopefully.

That practice is not against the law, it's just annoying. They obviously just don't want to take your word for it that you don't know the person. As long as they have not told you anything about the debt, or that it is an attempt to collect a debt, there is nothing illegal about calling and asking for somebody... it's just annoying. Block the number if they keep calling, but they prob will give up in a month or so.
Most of these debts will go to small claims court if they go to court, so they wouldn't need a lawyer. Plus, they mostly will never go to court, but the fact is that they COULD... so the threat of a lawsuit is greater than the actual lawsuit.

I read the story you linked to. This is another reason why Utah is my least favorite state. In many states, Florida for example, your home is not attackable. Your homestead is exempt property under the FL constitution.

Yep, FL is a terrible state to own debt in. Very consumer friendly.

Yea, that Utah story is rough, but it is also slanted. I personally think there was more to that story than was written, but it just shows that you really do have reason to pay debt even if it isn't to the original creditor.
Florida is incredibly consumer friendly... one of the worst places to buy and collect on debt... hence why it is super cheap there; also in Texas and North Carolina come to mind and cheap, bad debt states.