New platform for fucking with Debt Collectors
Just launching a new platform, it will probably break if you use it. Try it and tell me how it goes. The Freemium is useless but if you want basic just sign up (with credit card) and I will give it to you free for life...seriously.
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http://blog.npmjs.org/post/78085451721/npms-self-signed-cert...
http://blog.npmjs.org/post/78085451721/npms-self-signed-cert...
EDIT: I also understand the collectors can be very invasive and annoying. But think about how you would be if someone owed you $5k. Would you just ping them once a month or would you be a little bit in their face trying to get your money?
In both cases, the default behavior of the debt collectors was to... break the law. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act exists for a reason and its only peoples' ignorance of it that allows the grotesque tactics they employ to continue unabated.
(BTW: The $100 bill I forgot about? I promptly paid it once I was reminded of it. The $5,300 the landlord claimed I owed? That went away the moment I pointed out I had proof of their malfeasance.)
"Just doing their jobs" is not an excuse for bad behavior, ever.
If an entire industry is so systematically rotten that good behavior (read: compliance with the law) is the exception rather than the norm, what is one to do?
For example, if the debt collector does not provide any written notice and refuses to provide an address to which one can mail a written notice of dispute, what is one to do?
If the debt is intrinsically fraudulent, and the "validation" of the debt consists solely of confirming its veracity with the party committing fraud, what is one to do?
If one tries to dispute a fraudulent claim when speaking to a debt collector on the phone and one is told "I don't fucking care, if you don't give me a goddamn credit card number right fucking now I'm going to garnish your wages and fucking destroy your credit!", what is one to do?
And don't tell me that I should complain to the FTC -- since there was no written communication, and I couldn't identify the parties involved, they were unable/unwilling/uninterested in helping me.
At this point I have no sympathy for debt collectors. The very best of them are preying upon people who are already in a bad position and that's being generous.
I'm almost tempted to be late on a bill or two just so I can use this service (whatever it may be -- still can't access it) in an attempt to discourage these vermin from continuing in their chosen "profession".
The version of BUKIT now is a minimal viable product but with time I plan on adding in more features to help make reporting, disputing and suing easier.
So my goal is to try and take them out, but it is ultimately to everyone's benefit.
But for my company, it is not really addressing loans or debts between people on a small scale but a trillion dollar defaulted debt market where large funds buy debt and then hire agencies to collect. For the funds, its not about what was owed, it is about return on investment.
[1] I'll admit that mortgages probably are not handled in the same way as other debt but that was the only high $$ debt I could think of... and it sounds like we're not talking about skipping out on a $100 cable bill here. Perhaps we're talking more about charging $20k on a Visa and then not paying. Feel free to substitute any other example where one person pays their debt and the other does not.
That's pretty fucked up.
If someone cannot pay, then abusive language has no value either because, well, they cannot pay.
The only case where abusive language is beneficial is if someone is actively trying to pay down their bills, but they have more bills than they can pay all at once and a debt collector wants to get their bill paid before every other debt collector's bill. And gee, that's exactly what happens when someone loses their job / suffers a major medical crisis / etc.
tl;dr: Abusive behavior is useless if someone is NOT going to pay their bills, and only does anything if someone is TRYING to pay their bills: It's a means for collectors to try and jump the line to get their own debt paid first.
And frankly, anyone who thinks that two wrongs make a right is a terrible person.
My situation is this- I live in Israel and my programmer who built the site is in the Army and unreachable. I've been coding but I really just have skills that are "programmer adjacent."
I need to build my tech team so if this excites you and you have skills- (site is built in node.js and hosted on Amazon) please contact me through the email address in the executive summary.
Debt isn't just college students and poor folk. Job loss, divorce, health issues, etc can easily put you in a situation where the bills fall behind and you have a cash flow crunch, but you're not destitute.
I had a friend in a situation like this, and managing the various deals (payment arrangements, forgiveness programs, deadlines, etc) was very difficult. Paying $50/mo to manage this stuff would have saved her lots of money in fees and interest.
For a lot of people, it's worth it just to have the peace of mind that a collection agency will never call them again.
I love the idea though, and I wish you the greatest of success.
EDIT: could also do with some kind of tagline in the page title, unless that's not the done thing in SEOland anymore.
I can add a tagline in the page title. Great suggestion- and I'll ask a friend who does SEO about it
Also, if I am able to fully execute the vision for BUKIT. It will screw with the credit bureaus bonus
and my twitter handle is @sarahnadav