References

Anytime you want to take out a loan, get a new job, or any myriad of other transactions, people want you to give them references. You may say you are one thing, but people want to know if you are who you say you are, or what you've done. People want that contact info to verify the trustworthiness of the person.

In the hands of a bill collector, it's a way to find you.

When we get a loan in our office, we get contact information for the borrower that may or may not be good, useful info. And if we can't reach the borrower at that info, one of the first things we do (or at least I do) is contact references.

Given that the loans I deal with have been in default for years, the references range the gamut:

"Him - oh, hang on, he just walked in the door." (With younger borrowers, this is really common - lots of people moving back in with Mom and Dad right now.)

"Oh geez, he just moved, and I've got his address somewhere. He's hard to reach, now that he's working nights over at the plant in town..." (SCORE! Contact info AND job!)

"I've got her number, but I don't know who you are. So I'll just take a message and pass it on..."

"Wow - haven't seen her in years...I think she moved to Guam...not really sure..."

"HIM? I had a fucking RESTRAINING ORDER filed against that asshole! How the FUCK did you get my number?" (Useful reference type if they actually have contact info and you can convince them you are seeking the borrower out for really awful reasons.)

What can we tell the references? Well, that depends. If the account has documented permission to talk to the references (say, from a program half set-up or a previous program from a different department years ago), then we can talk to them just like they were the borrower.

If there is no documented permission, we can say "personal business matter". That's it. Nothing more. Even though most people can make the stretch that "personal business matter" means "bill collector". They just might not know what for.

"Is this about her car she hasn't paid on? Well, I can tell you y'all ain't gonna get nuthin, cause she wrapped that fucking piece of shit around a tree last week. You wanna repo, y'all better bring a scraper." Click.

Grandparent references are the best, as they often have few suspicions about who you are and why you're trying to reach their grandchild (provided said grandchild isn't in other obvious legal trouble - then they just call you a nasty person and hang up on you). And if the grandchild is delinquent about calling or staying in touch (When was the last time you called YOUR grandmother? Don't you want to go call her right now? I'm sure she's worried about you.), any excuse to call is a welcome one. :)

I spoke with a grandmother the other day about a borrower. "Oh, yes...such a sweet *COUGH COUGH* child. I would be happy to *COUGH COUGH* take a message to give her." Pause of coughing and retching sounds. "Sorry about that - the pneumonia's bad this year. And I have to write slow, so be patient - the Parkinson's is worse in the winter..."

Yep, I was feeling about two inches tall right then. Did I leave the message? You bet I did. In that far, may as well finish the job. And she had her excuse to call her granddaughter, which made her so happy. She even thanked me at the end of the call.

However, the "sweet" granddaughter was significantly less happy with us when she called in the next day and found out who we were.

"What the FUCK is wrong with you fucking people that you are calling my SICK FUCKING GRANDMOTHER about my student loan? YOU HAVE my fucking phone number. There is NO FUCKING NEED to call my SICK AND POSSIBLY FUCKING DYING GRANDMOTHER."

Actually, we don't have your phone number. Is this the best number to reach you on? And yes, we will make sure not to call your grandmother again.

It turned out her loan had been with a different collection agency, and had been transferred to us while in process of setting something up with them. The other collection agency failed to give us the updated info along with the account. We updated information and sent her a letter, but I have a suspicion she will never settle her loan with us.

Because if she calls in (or I call her) to set up payment arrangements...I'm going to need to update references.