From the same folks who make debt-collection calls...
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Get out the party hats, it’s National Credit Education Week!
To celebrate, the ACA International Education Foundation (which invented the week), has launched ‘Ask Doctor Debt,’ an online service the nonprofit group touts as ‘Dear Abby for consumers with credit and debt questions.’
Sample questions on the site — which features smiling, hugging people who don’t look miserable enough to have debt problems — concern credit cards, mortgages, student loans and the like. Doctor Debt’s answers frequently involve having a nice discussion with creditors to see what can be worked out. And if a collection agency calls, ‘talk to your collector and arrange a time and place to discuss your debt.’
No big surprise the site urges you to make nice with debt collectors — the foundation was created by the Assn. of Credit and Collection Professionals. Yes, the people who make debt-collection calls.
One topic that’s not much explored on the site is bankruptcy, which gets only two sample questions (credit cards get 10). Could it be because a bankruptcy filing immediately halts collection calls by law?
And that makes the agencies frown. When bankruptcy is filed, they no longer can play doctor.
—David Colker
