The Shell Game – How your debts are bought and sold

Debts are bought and sold like commodities.  The potential return on an investment a company makes on a debt portfolio is the crux of the debt collection market.  Junk debt buyers, who feel they are excluded by the rules set up for actual debt collectors, will buy debts and then assign them, or resell them to anxious collectors and law firms looking to scare you into paying.

When discovering information about your debt, find out if the company soliciting you is the owner or the assignee of the debt.  Also, make sure any correspondence you send addresses everyone in the food chain of ownership/assignment of the debt.  If not, as soon as you assert your rights the debt buyer will shuffle the debt to a new member in their list of collectors to try and regain another attempt to collect without addressing the proof- a literal three-card Monte.

 Make the Choice.  Make the Change.  Delta.