Breaking the Stigma of Debt Collection: A Journey of Finding Purpose in a Challenging Occupation

Collecting debt is a challenging occupation. I want to share my story of how I ended up in this business. Many years ago, I needed a job. I was blessed by the birth of my daughter and was just recently fired from an awful job. I was hired by a company that collected medical & commercial debt. I had never wanted a job calling people for medical debt, it just wasn’t for me. But I needed a job, and I was great on the phone. One of my first phone calls was not good. I called someone regarding an unpaid medical bill. A young girl answered the phone. I asked to speak to John Doe, she must have been used to answering the calls because I heard her say to the gentleman, “maybe it would have been better if I would have died.” The gentleman took my call, I was in total shock at what I had just heard. I didn’t even know where to begin. All I remember saying to him was, “don’t worry about this bill, I’ll take care of it, it won’t go on any credit report. Sorry to bother you.” I ended the call, stood up from my desk, and immediately went to the break room. I remember sitting on the couch staring outside asking myself what I was doing calling people who owed money for medical bills. Am I nuts? Who does this? Especially when I had accounts in collections. I stuck it out because I had no choice. I swore I would make every phone call on a medical debt with compassion and understanding. I instill this in every collection agent we hire. There is no room for anything else. Our approach worked for me back then, and still works to this day.