ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

How to deal with harassing credit card accounts collection agents

Updated on August 8, 2011

Debts: Default Credit Cardholders

I have been a default credit cardholder of one of the commercial banks here in the Philippines, and I am being harassed by the rude collection agents for weeks now. First let us discuss the root of the matter.

First of all, I want to make it clear to you that I DID NOT APPLY FOR THE CARD, initially. There came a man to our office, a credit card marketer pushed me to avail of those cards. Financially, that time, I was capable of handling the said card. Later that month, I suddenly received a card without notice. I activated and use it. I was on that time need of a personal laptop for my studies. So, I bought one on an installment basis using the card (it's the only requirement). In the beginning, I was able to settle all the accounts and outstanding balances until one of the family got sick and badly needed financial support for medication. I even used the card to buy costly prescribed medicine and worse, I skip paying monthly dues. I did not go to work for so long, like a couple of months because I was badly needed to stay in the hospital to look after our patient. I was never thinking that the bank would never understand my situation. They are still sending billing statements with many large interests that bloated my total outstanding balance to unacceptable amount of Php 39000 and still increasing because I cannot pay for it. They want me to pay for it fully. Where on earth will I ever get such amount?

When I got back to work and checked my emails, I received an email from the bank informing me that they have endorsed and forwarded my account to their collection agency and that if I want to discuss matters regarding my card, agents from that agency are the ones I need to talk with.

Also the same day, I received the first demand letter from that agency. That letter stated that it was a legal action to demand from me a full payment of my outstanding balance and also pay for legal charges such as attorney's fee and court fees and so may fees. I was really scared and I did not know what to do. So I googled the name of the said agency. There I saw so many complaints from people like me who were also being harassed by those agents. Reading and browsing more, I clicked a link to a blogsite of a man in the name of Mr. Banker (of course it's not his real name).

This blogsite: http://failuretopaycreditcard.blogspot.com/ is a big help for people like me. It let me know the account cycles for default cardholders. Sorry to say that, the language used in this site is "tagalog", our own dialect so you probably won't understand, but not at all because there are some statements in English.

Meanwhile, I can tell you some things I learned from reading the entire site.

1. Once you account has been defaulted for 3 months, the bank will then record it to their write-offs. Meaning, it's already closed and considered it no longer collectible (Bad debts).

2. They sell your account (not the account in the book) to those collection agencies and those collection agents will then start to harass you because the larger the payment you give the higher commission they will get.

3. If you are here in the Philippines, YOU WILL NEVER BE IMPRISONED FOR NON PAYMENT AS LONG AS YOU ARE NOT DEFRAUDING YOUR IDENTITY. So why hide? Don't hide from your debts, face it. If you have nothing to pay, tell them.

4. Those agents are the ones who are giving misleading identities. Police Officer, Lawyer, Officer from the bank, etc. etc. etc... They do that to scare you. Don't be. They did not even go to college.

5. Court (small claims court for cases like this) is your allied. Ask for an amnesty. Ask for a reconstruction of your account. Pay in any way you can. Payment option is in your hands, not them.

6. If these people continue to harass you and scare you, I learned a magic word from Mr. Banker: Tell them "Sue me" .. (they eventually turn into dragons! Become mad because their tactics are being busted)

If you want to help others who are suffering from this situation, let them know. Have them informed about the truth. Share it to them.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)