For the majority, a borrower counselor’s (Collectors) high demand job is nowhere close to being easy. The exact opposite of success is the chopping block. Those that were not innovative enough ended up going straight to the unemployment office with their heads chopped off. All it took was a silver tongue to have job security. A superb talker in this business will receive a reoccurring merit, a four figured merit to be exact.

The Department of Ed’s collection contract is the most lucrative contract in the debt recovery business. A year into it and I felt like a whale in this vast ocean of debts, scooping these little plankton’s, I call debtors. As long as the treasury reports provided me with the POEs (place of employments) I could fish my way into my own financial freedom.

Mr. Keys Notes: Department of Education is connected with the Treasury Department… this means, if you work… you MUST file a tax return. When you do file for taxes… the collection agency will be updated with your employers info.

This was an ordinary Monday. I came into work as my shift required me to at 7:00 am to “service” the east-coast. Today was Monday, a day used to set my pace for the week. My motivation was to out produce any foe that sat beside me. Today on my plate, laid a Postal worker, a man who had dedicated almost 2 decades into what he was doing. I knew he was a Federal worker, but I inherited this account from my cubical neighbor. She gets turned off, when working with these Federal workers (I will explain later in the story).

Mike Quota the post man is a family man, with a stay-at-home wife, and 4 kids. I engaged my hunt by contacting his wife. In most states it is okay to contact the spouse regarding these types of matters. I delivered the cheerless news of the garnishment to the person closest to him. By setting the tone with his wife, I was able to get the husband to call me back to discuss this matter.

Mike Quota a soft spoken man in his 50’s was fed up with this student loan dangling over him. I gave him my soft threats, and cushioned the blows with some comfort words. I used words such as help, assist, and support. As a borrower counselor the most money making role is to play the role of the “helping counselor”. I usually carried on in a calm, friendly, and attentive manner. After getting through calming him and jotting down his financial information, I placed him on hold. I placed him on pause, and he most likely believed that I was checking his options.

The debtors may have believed it, but I felt like a car sales man drinking a coffee in the back office, trying to get you a “better deal”. I came back from hold and smashed Mike Quota with a surprising 15% down payment of this loan balance. It was almost $5,400.00 and he was obliged to pay this by the end of this month. I went back and forth with him for an hour, and he ended up placing a credit card on file.

Mr. Kay’s Notes: The down payment was something unnecessary which I had the option of eliminating.

I had forced him to borrow money from his retirement funds. In one swift motion, with one single account I was able to obtain the money I needed to hit my monthly quota. Although I could have placed Mr. Quota on a minimum payment without this hefty down payment, I knew that it was up to my discretion. The interesting twist to this story is that, Federal employees cannot be garnished by a collection agency.
Come to think of it now, my hungry spirit truly hurt people, real people that had their bills, families and obligations. I had bullied people from Alaska to Puerto Rico, delivering devastating news to people through the phone system. Till this day, I feel so terrible.  I will spend my days trying to make things right.

Sincerely,

Mr. Kay Production Manager

Rogue Student Loan Collector

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Why should you listen to me?

Why am I releasing this information?

I was now a veteran Borrower counselor (collector), and it was even appropriate to attach the word “senior” to my job title. Being a collector for such a long time numbed my heart. They say that the collection industry can create a monster out of almost every person. A Borrower counselor says things like, “Criers are payers” and “We can’t squeeze blood out of a rock, but we can crush it”. In the call center I will pick dirt out of my nails, as I listen to people cry over their predicaments. Some will say that it is just the nature of our business, but I noticed my character slowly mutating. As a senior borrower counselor my heart had turned to stone. Looking back now, I was Department of Education’s rabid German Sheppard.

Every day is an interesting day for me, speaking to people with different problems in their lives. One of today’s tasks was to contact a person working for a very large company. I had been working this account for about 45 days now. Mrs. Jane Garnishin was a call center rep, the cuddly and harmless ones. At first, my intention was to contact her prior to the wage-attachment (garnishment) but she was very difficult to reach. She must have worked with loads of people because I had a tough time getting in touch with her. I am not even sure if she received my messages, but I was totally fed up with chasing this damsel.

After leaving 5 messages at home, 2 messages at her place of employment, and sending out 3 auto generated letters to the home mailing address we had on file, I was ready to initiate the garnishment. Please let me explain a little about the letters

• The 1st of the set is the initial demand letter, which is a letter letting them know that our company has been retained by the DOE, and to inform borrowers that their loan balances are legally due in full . (along with basic account information)
  
• The 2nd of the set, is a letter informing borrowers that a settlement compromise is available.
• The 3rd and final letter of this set, is a notification that the Rehabilitation payment plan is available to start repayment on this obligation.

All letters are required to be gaped 14 days apart. Making the calls to Mrs. Garnishin and leaving her messages came with ease. The most time consuming part of submitting a garnishment would be completing the letter series. I would not able to kick-off the garnishment without all these letters being sent. If she were to have returned her mail, I would’ve needed to update the address and restart this 45 day cycle over again. These Federal garnishment requirements are extremely strict and garnishments cannot be initiated without the completion of all of these strict requirements. In Mrs. Jane Garnishin‘s case her calls, messages, and the letters have now been completed. The time for Jane losing control of her financial situation was nearing, and she would be trapped like a moth in a shower. Any time a garnishment is kicked-off it would usually continue until the total remaining balance has been paid off. Remember, student loans can range between 4 figures to even 6 figures ($1000-$100,000+).

If the word “forever” could be measured by a life-span, people are forever getting killed financially. I knew the strain it would cause people, and I felt that it was my mission to notify these people of their situation. You see, these are grown adults, and they did not need or want me to tell them what to do. As a messenger I took it as my task to give the necessary heads-up. As for Mrs. Jane Garnishin, I called and called and waited and waited but she never called back. Since all of my work here was done and I was not able to contact Mrs. Jane Garnishin, I ended up sentencing her to financial death row. I submitted her file to our garnishment department and that was the end.

Almost 1 year later Mrs. Jane Garnishin called back and I placed her on hold, it was now her time to become patient and wait. I had an idea why she called; she must have been fed up with having her pay checks tampered with. I noticed that her $600 monthly garnishment had jumped up to $725 for the last few months. These garnishments are set at a percentile rate based off of her disposable-pay. I came to a realization that she probably received a raise or promotion at work. Having a garnishment on file and working towards receiving a raise at work, is like being an injured trout swimming upstream. She probably wanted to enjoy all the fruits of her labor, and her raise is what possibly triggered the call back.

After familiarizing myself with her account I was ready to talk and took her off hold. When I began my conversation with Mrs. Jane Garnishin I gave her a shred of hope, letting her know that there is a possibility of stopping the garnishment. I laid out solutions for Mrs. Jane Garnishin and she refused to take advantage of her options. She was unable to do a lump sum pay off, and she started getting ill-tempered. Obviously there weren’t too many options she could take advantage of with a $725 monthly garnishment. Since she refused I slapped her with an update, letting her know that the garnishment payments have only been applied to her outstanding interest and her collection costs. Emotionally she was like an uncontrollable roller coaster. She felt hopeful, then angry, and then she became so angry to a point where she started to cry. Towards the end of the conversation she started using obscene language and she eventually hung up out of frustration.

It is interesting being on my side of the phone. Options are limited when working with garnishees, but there is always a solution for everything. There is a remedy rarely offered for this financial catastrophe, a cure that is available ONLY upon request. If the garnishment created an undue financial hardship, Mrs. Garnishin would’ve had the option for an untimely hearing request. If Mrs. Jane Garnishin would have talked to someone more knowledgeable about this, maybe a legal counsel, or if she invested some time into reading some literature, then she too would have known this information. I occasionally call her every other quarter but after 2 ½ years with 2 promotions, throwing over $800 a month away in garnishment payments, Mrs. Jane Garnishin still has not returned my calls.

Sincerely,

Mr. Kay Production Manager

Rogue Student Loan Collector

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Why should you listen to me?

Why am I releasing this information?