Grayson Bell has written “True Confessions of a Former Debt Collector,” in which he confirms many facts which consumers complain about, but which industries deny, including the following:
Robo-Calls every hour: “Our dialing system would call a borrower once an hour until they were reached. We couldn’t leave any messages and had to get in touch with the actual borrower. Our calling hours were 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. local time. This was seven days a week, with only a few holidays off.”
Manufactured Late Fees: “As a mortgage servicing company, it was our responsibility to take payments — whether mailed checks, automatic bank drafts, or over-the-phone payments — and apply them to loans. Seems straightforward, but it only took me a few months to realize we were creating trouble for borrowers. In a few cases, I discovered our payment processing department holding checks we’d received until after the due date. They would then charge the borrower a late fee, saying they hadn’t received the check on time.”
Double Drafting: “I got calls on a regular basis from borrowers who’d had their checking accounts double drafted: Our system would debit the mortgage payment on the regular date, then draft it again a day or two later.”
Read the entire article here.