In a glass tower on the outskirts of New Delhi, dozens of young Indians are on the telephone, calling out-of-work, forgetful and debt-stricken Americans to ask for cash.
“Are you sure that’s all you can afford?” one operator in a row of cubicles inquires politely.
“Well, how do you take care of your everyday expenses?” presses another.
Americans are used to receiving calls from India for insurance claims and credit card sales. But debt collection represents a growing business for outsourcing companies, especially as the U.S. economy slows and its consumers struggle to pay for their purchases.
Armed with a sophisticated automated system that dials tens of thousands of Americans every hour, and puts confidential information like Social Security numbers, addresses and credit history at the fingertips of operators, this new cadre of collectors is chasing down late car payments, overdue credit card debt and lapsed installment loans. Debt collectors in India often cost about one-quarter the price of their American counterparts, and are often better at the job, debt collection company executives say.
This is more than symbolic when you think about it. A developing nation functioning as bill collector from the world’s largest debtor nation.
I haven’t had a credit card since the early 90’s… Friggen loan sharks.
Its also more than symbolic in getting the poor to fight with the other poor to collect money for the rich man.
i’m with dvorak, i use a charge card.
interestingly, america’s indentured working poor live like kings compared to the new indian working class – who very much take pride in their opportunity and employment. ask them sometime – it won’t be hard to get one on the phone.
So wait, our social security numbers are being sent overseas? That’s just smart.
We need to get off of social security numbers as being a means of verifying our credit. Our credit system is so full of holes, it’s no wonder identity theft is rampant.
Welcome to the Outsourced States of America. Where the only thing that we produce is debt.
You can attract more flies with honey than with vinegar.
I dropped Bell Canada as my internet provider because service was horrible once they outsourced to india. Many others I know did the same. If the service went down here, they wouldn’t know about it. Getting to the bottom of service issues went from hours to weeks… is your modem plugged in? Please restart your computer. Please restart your computer. Is your password correct? aaagh! Their knowledge of internet technology was as close to zero as you can get. They read from a mile long script and would never stray from it even though the servers were down in Toronto, or they were doing repairs in Kitchener to the phone lines, or …
This is just too funny. It will be interesting to see if the many less than high school educated bill collectors end up having their own bills turned over to a collection agency from India when they can’t pay them.
Can you stop by? I have a leather check wrapped around my fist.
Consider this for just one moment. Credit and loan companies are doing everything they can to lower the cost of operations- automated phone systems, computerized filing, outsourcing their debt collection. But, their rates keep going higher and higher.
This directly equates to making more money while spending less money. Now, I’ll say that I’m a fan of capitalism…but at what point do we as the consuming public say enough is enough with these people RAKING in the cash?
So they’re so cheap (or greedy) now that they have to outsource the bill collector operators. That’s rich! What’s next? Outsourcing the Psychic Hotlines, or the Love Lines? And if you can mimic a decent american accent in India, you really can get ahead. And when they make enough money, they can leave their hell hole country for America. Where they can live without a job, because it will still be outsourced to India or done by a mexican.
Of the current 9.4 trillion dollar US federal government debt, about 2 trillion dollars of it we Americans have borrowed from China and Japan combined.
If McCain becomes president and lowers taxes while he promises to continue military occupations for 100 more years in Iraq and Afghanistan (and maybe Iran I hear lately), where is the additional money to fund the troops going to come from?
Are china and japan going to be calling up the US taxpayers for their money back?
Or are China and Japan going to come and get their money back from us the hard way.