Originally answered on Quora: TrueAccord’s CEO, Ohad Samet, answers questions about debt collection. (Edited to expand on the answer, as well as to add notations and information.)

What should I do if a debt collection agency refuses to give any details (except the amount due) about an outstanding bill?

I visited a hospital in another state in 2014. By the time the hospital sent a bill to my temporary address, I had moved state. A few months later, a collection agency called me asking me to pay the dues. I called the hospital to verify the details given by this agency. It checked out, so I paid the hospital and got a zero due certificate from the hospital. One fine day, I find an entry in my credit report from another collection agency for the same hospital bill. (The due amount was different this time).

I called the collection agency and they said they don’t have any details regarding this bill except the amount and asked me to contact the hospital for more details.

I called the hospital, physician’s billing office and the insurance company for an explanation of benefits (EOB). The hospital and physician’s office confirms that there is no record of any dues against my name. This due amount does not show up anywhere in the Insurance’s EOB. Today, the collection agency has made another entry in my credit report for the same balance.

The agency continues to not give me any more information (in spite of multiple phone calls asking for more information) regarding the outstanding balance other than asking me to pay up. How should I solve this?
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When you’re overwhelmed by debt and creditors are calling, the allure of a clean slate via bankruptcy is like a sirens’ call. Before you make the leap overboard and decide that bankruptcy is the right option for you, you need to know what you’re getting yourself into, as well as weigh the pros and cons of the process. The first place to start is to obtain credit counseling to comply with a recent amendment to the US Bankruptcy Code, which requires it. Speaking with a certified credit counselor will help you consider all available options and ensure that bankruptcy is your only viable choice. Bankruptcy is harmful to the long term financial health of an individual, so it’s important to be ready for the associated costs, time, paper work, emotional toll and future financial repercussions.

Continue reading “Is Bankruptcy The Right Option For Me?” →

If you need to file for bankruptcy as your only option, we’re sorry to hear that. It’s never fun to be at a point where this is your only option. This is also a confusing time – not only are you in a tough financial spot, there’s also a lot to learn and decide on. Here, we tried to put together a few resources to help you choose and understand the process better.

Continue reading “I Need to File for Bankruptcy. Now What?” →

We are nearing the end of the sales pitch, and the exec I’m speaking to is almost convinced. I feel it: he likes the product and likes the innovation but he has to ask; he can’t let me off the hook.

He leans forward and looks me right in the eyes. And then it comes. The question.

“Tell me more about your Compliance Management System.”

Without a word, I reach into my bag, and grab a folder. It’s massive with hundreds of pages, all properly categorized: FDCPA, TCPA, FCRA, ECOA, GLBA, you-name-it. Here are the results of hundreds, maybe thousands of work hours. I slap it on the table, and it makes a loud noise even in this cavernous conference room.

We both smile. I passed the test.

Continue reading “Why Start a Company in a Regulated Industry?” →

Our CEO and CTO participated in Finovate Spring’s session in San Jose in May. Catch their video below and watch a live demo of our product!

In my past life, working for large corporations, everyone around me had a well-defined role.  There was a team in charge of the strategy, a team responsible for analytics, different set of folks who took the analysis and translated it into policy, then someone who took that and designed a product solution and wrote out a spec, a project manager that helped coordinate and, of course, the engineering team. I may have missed someone – but you get the sense.  Every six months or so, the division I was in would go through a reorg – to centralize, or to regionalize, or to better define the role of one of the teams above, or to split it into two, etc.  What drove the reorgs was rarely a change in company direction – more often than not, it was the overlap in the roles of multiple teams, or unhappiness by a subset of people about not being recognized, or being pigeonholed into a piece of the landscape that wasn’t attractive.

Now that I am part of the leadership team at TrueAccord, we’ve had some conversations about the best way to split the end-to-end responsibility of building and operating a technology platform between teams of people. As I ponder this topic more and more, I am becoming convinced that there is tremendous value in keeping roles broad and multifaceted – particularly in teams where employees’ average level of work experience is less than 10 years per employee.

Continue reading ““Redistricting with growth” – structuring and defining roles for junior employees” →

Are all debt collectors bad people? Far from it. Still, newspapers are filled with colorful, hard to read descriptions like this one. As we’ve written before, the barriers to entry into the debt collection market is too low, and enforcement is limited enough to draw people who skirt the law for profit.

Debt collection can be different – friendly, targeted, frictionless and focused on financial rehabilitation. That’s our vision!

April has been a busy week for us! The TrueAccord team spent time at LendIt NYC, and was covered in Credit.com (including testimonials from actual collection processes!), Money For Lunch and NerdWallet. We’re proud of the interest we’re getting from various publications in financial services – the debt collection revolution is starting to pick up.