There aren’t many jobs where can you go from talking to a Wall Street Investment Banker one minute and to Jim-Bob the mechanic from Alabama the next. This is the life of a debt collector. This post is based purely on my personal experiences and has absolutely no scientific evidence to back it up. My inspiration came from a conversation I had with a manager at my company. He was explaining to me how he always has the most luck (money collected) with people in the Southeast of the United States. We discussed our experience collecting throughout the U.S. We were able to generalize and come up with our debtor demographics. Some of these may be apparent in your work as well. I have also provided a Rick Rating (1-8) to each region or state with 1 being the most likely to pay and 8 being the least likely to pay.
Rick Ratings:
- Southeast: I’m not sure how much a part of religion plays in it, but for people who live in the Southeastern part of the U.S. understand their responsibilities and are willing to work with collectors. However, their balances are not nearly as high as other regions. Rick Rating: 1
- Midwest: Debtors in the Midwest are much easier to get on the phone, for whatever reason, but are very hit or miss. Not much for arguing and much more willing to get help from family. Rick Rating: 2
- Northeast: The best part about people in the Northeast is that they will argue with you all day. No matter what you say they will never hung up the phone. Rick Rating: 3
- Northwest: People from the Northwest are harder to explain. Sometimes you’ll get the intellectual from Seattle who wants to preach to you about the “absurdity of such high interest”. Then you’ll get the truck driver from Boise who couldn’t care less about his credit. Rick Rating: 4
- Southwest: Arizona is a big debtor state for the Southwest. I’m sure a lot of it has to do with the real estate marketing being what it is. These are the people that will tell you 1,000 times that they are going to pay and never do. Frustrating! Rick Rating: 5
- Florida: I remember when I first started in collections and a collector telling me, “Why do you think OJ Simpson lives there. They can’t take anything from you!” Now I know what he meant. Rick Rating: 6
- Texas: Don’t mess with Texas should be changed to “Don’t give credit in Texas”. I’m only kidding!!! Rick Rating: 7
- California: Not only are they the hardest people to get on the phone, but as soon as you say something they don’t like they hung up. Add to it the foreclosures and the state government almost bankrupt, getting anything collected out of California at this point is highly unlikely. Rick Rating: 8
Note that these are all very general and merely personal opinions. I would like hear your opinions, do you have to work with people all over the U.S.? Do you have any generalizations to add?
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2 Comments until now.
I don’t know but I laugh
when I read your post above :)
Nice post, keep it up
Gposer’s last blog post..Finding A Debt Consolication Free And Non Profit In Michigan?
I work for a debt settlement company and I have to give it to you, I know exactly what you mean. I can’t comment on all regions, but as a native Texan, I can tell you that on of the reasons you have such a hard time with Texas is not only the mentality, but also the laws that created and back up the Texan mentality today. No wage garnishment, no leins on a home…it’s pretty darn hard to get anything from a Texan unsecured debt-wise.
It’s funny, because if I rated my industry’s clients based on how likely they were to join our program, it would be the exact opposite of your’s (based on personal experience, of course). Southeast would be ‘not likely’, yet Texas and Florida are almost absolute certainties.
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