Cussing Out Collectors -or- Silence Is Golden

Standing Your Ground

Sometimes clients used to come to me and tell me they had cussed out or “really yelled” at a debt collector. They were proud at having stood up for themselves, but after calming down they would sometimes wonder whether they had done the right thing. I didn’t share their enthusiasm. I believe you “stand up” for yourself by looking out for yourself, and yelling at the person on the other end of that line does not really do that.

How Much Should You Talk to Debt Collectors?

Can it hurt to talk to debt collectors? What information do debt collectors keep about you? And how can they use it against you?

Understanding the Debt Collectors

It helps to understand the debt collection business a little bit. As I have often said, the debt collector’s job, on the whole, is not to take excess money from people who have a lot to spare. Rather, it is to force people who do not have enough money to make a choice in favor of the debt collector’s company. They do this by harassing you a little bit more, a little bit louder, a little bit nicer (sometimes), than the other debt collectors. Or whatever it takes. See, they are competing against each other, and you are just the playing field in their game. To the extent they can get you emotionally involved in the call they have usually made some progress. To get you to generate, focus, and then release all the energy involved in cussing them out is usually an accomplishment for the collector–especially if they can then turn around and play on your feelings of guilt for being personally obnoxious.

Think of Debt Collection As a Machine

Of course this analysis simply treats the collector as part of a machine rather than a person. They are people, too, and some collectors are sadistic, while others are nice. The nice ones do not deserve to be yelled at, as they are just doing their jobs, and the sadistic ones will take pleasure, rather than being disturbed, at having riled you to the point of yelling at them.

Far better, in my opinion, to hang up without getting emotionally involved.

What's the Harm in a Little Cussing?

From a legal point of view, does it hurt you to cuss at the collectors? I’ve never actually seen it make any difference, although it might if you were going to try to litigate a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to its conclusion, especially if you want to claim they were "abusive." The callers do, generally, keep notes on their interactions with you, so if you yell at one collector, the next collector will know about it.

There Could be Some Benefit

In a litigation context, the stress and distress that you show by yelling might help you prove your damages. I would normally believe that this minor advantage would be offset by a shifting of legal standards–if you’re yelling and cussing at them, it shifts what they can “reasonably” say to you a little bit, too. In other words, if you yell at them, can you expect a judge or jury to get very mad at them for yelling back?

As I said, for my clients this was always an academic question–we just never really made an attempt to prove serious harassment and damages against a debt collector.

Silence Is Normally Golden

If you have hopes of making the debt collector pay for harassing you, I’d say it’s probably a good idea to keep your mouth shut and try to prove your damages some other way. Nothing you can say will actually bother a debt collector, and you need to save your energy and emotional strength for things that can make a difference. If you do this, you will have an excellent chance to win.

To see why your chances of winning a debt law case are so good, visit my youtube site at: Why You Can Fight Debt Collectors and Win. For information on many issues that come up in debt litigation and materials you can use to defend yourself, go to YourLegalLegUp.