Denial - not just a river in Egypt

One of the responses I get to calls when people find out I'm calling on their student loans is to say they will contact their original lender and/or the guarantor to see about what can be done regarding the loan, thank you very much.

Occasionally I just get a hangup after that, but usually they are looking for some sort of validation. A statement along the lines of, "Oh, yes, well, I'm glad to be of service to remind you of this pressing debt, thank you so much for answering your phone and I'm sure you will deal with this matter promptly."

They aren't going to get it.

There are usually three institutions they want to speak with, and if we can get a word in edgewise, these are also the responses:

"I'll call the school and see about this - after all, I never attended classes."

The school got paid when the loan was taken out. You don't owe them funds, nor can they or will they reimburse funds paid out two/five/twenty years ago. No matter what the circumstances for why you believe the school shouldn't have taken your loan money, they did. Your window for arguing this, short of hiring and attorney and filing a lawsuit, is over. Let's talk.

"I'll talk to the bank that I took the loan out with originally."

They got paid. When your loan went into default, the guarantor paid the original lender. The original lender will tell you that, and inform you to deal with whatever collection agency has your loan now. That's us. Let's talk.

"I'll talk to the guarantor and see what we can work out."

We are collecting on their behalf. They are paying us to call you. If you call them directly, they will tell you to call us. Let's talk.

In some cases, it's a delaying tactic - there is someone else I can deal with who is not you, so let me tell you I will contact them and that means you may get bored and go away.

But in a lot of cases, it really is denial. No one wants to believe they are really dealing with a collection agency, or they want to believe there is some way they can escape having to deal with it. Collections only happen to bad people, they only happen to other people, not to me, certainly. There is a way to get out of this.

And those people do get really excited about the rehabilitation program when they find out how it works. It's just a matter of keeping them on the phone. Unlike the angry person I spoke to in the previous post, who you really can't do anything with.

Though I suppose the ultimate denials as the ones who I hear their voicemail message over and over and over...and they never pick up.