Roger Willis' firm, Willis Associates of La Jolla, Calif., teaches dozens of collection agencies how to use a personable approach to charm debtors who cower at the sound of a phone ringing. The answers didn't vary. That might include reducing the debt. People are hurting. They usually want to talk with someone who cares, who can help them.
Debtors can recover, and become even better customers.
And they get religion. They cognitively understand how to better take care of their finances. The philosophy that people can be helped to repay their debts is spawning a lucrative industry. Start-up companies buy bad debt from credit card issuers at a few cents on the dollar, then forge payment plans with debtors that net them four to five times as much. They're trying to get money out of people the banks have written off.