The year of a collector: making more than 100 calls a day, torn between debt collection and conscience

Source of this article: Times Weekly Author: Fu Yibo

At the end of 2023, the focus of Li Yi's story falls on "money".

Li Yi is a mother of triplets, the wife of her husband, and the daughter of her parents, and she is also an investigator and collector of "HR of the company" and "cooperating with law enforcement".

Two completely different identities jointly support the life of this 27-year-old girl in Hunan, and the link between them is "money". 

In the past three years, she has walked in the corridor of the company countless times, and the words of the slogan on her head - let the world have irretrievable integrity, always made her a little trance.

This sentence is logically correct. However, when the grand words "world", "redemption" and "integrity" were put together, she had an indescribable weird feeling. 

This is a branch of a collection company in the central region, and Li Yi's job is to deal with the payment recovery of overdue customers for credit cards and online loans.

Source: Picture Worm Creative

If you add a soft filter to her work, you will be able to regain the credit of the debtor, seek an "economic rebirth" and pay off the debt, as the chairman of the collection company said.

But with the increasing sophistication of collection work, Li Yi gradually formed a moral shackle in his heart: the two sides of collection are also thorny roads wrapped in money.

She herself, too, was lost at one point.

A game

Around October 2023, Li Yi received a call from her boss asking her to go back to work.

In the past few months, due to collection complaints and vicious incidents, 179 employees of the company were taken away by the local police for investigation, and the business was suspended.

Li Yi was affected and forced to return to the role of a housewife.

During the window period, she circled around the child every day. She doesn't like this, even if she knows that collecting is not a good job, but Li Yi said that she misses the days of "swords and swords". 

The day after receiving the call, she and a dozen of her colleagues returned to the office — a large open room that could accommodate 100 collectors.

Entering the role of collection, starting from shouting slogans at the morning meeting every day: "Let the world have irreparable integrity", "Do not forget the roots, do not forget the roots, do not forget the good, do not forget the ......" 

Li Yi shouted as he looked worriedly at the stack of thick customer lists on the table. Because, a "war of words" is about to be triggered.

The first person to receive her call that day was a 27-year-old man who owed more than 20,000 yuan in online loans and was 5 months overdue. Li Yi defines this type of person as: want to spend money, but can't afford it. In the past, she said, customers like this who did not owe much or less than six months generally do not appear on the list.

The reason why I don't care much about it is because the income of the collector is related to the arrears, which is generally 3%-5% of the total amount, and the commission for a long overdue period can reach 7%, and even some bad debts can reach 10%. To do this, she has to spend her time on the "old guys" who owe more money and are more overdue.

But the end of the year is approaching, whether it is an online loan or a credit card, as long as it is an outstanding debt, no matter how much it is owed, it will be thrown on the table of "Li Yimen", and the price will be clearly marked.

More customers means more revenue. But it's not easy to earn.

"Hey, is it xxx? I'm Director Wang of the credit department of XX company. You have a loan that is overdue, do you know? If you don't pay it back, you're going to have to go on a credit report. ”

"Okay. Then the phone was hung up. 

When I called again, it was already a busy signal. Li Yi knew that he had been blocked.

She is a veteran, took out the spare machine, and added the other party's WeChat with a small number.

Debtors are also human beings, and they will always show their clues on social media. As long as he grasps a little, Li Yi has a way to "persuade" the other party to pay back the money. In her own words, people have weaknesses.

Part of her work efficiency is to contact 10-20 people around her around a debtor, and Li Yi uses this network to capture the psychology of the debtor.

When it came to the closing stage, Li Yi changed his mobile phone and knocked down a line of words:

"You work in xxx company, if you don't pay back the money within 7 days, your company's HR will know. ”

She knows that keeping her job is the choice of most people at the moment.

Li Yi contacted more than 100 debtors on this day, recovered a debt of 50,000 yuan, and a commission of at least 1,500 yuan. She said that her salary in November was 17,000 yuan, which was three times the salary of the locals.

Revenue becomes motivation. On that day, the phone calls in the office continued one after another until seven or eight o'clock in the evening, and the end time was supposed to be six o'clock.

Fiery collections

At a certain moment, Li Yi felt that the two months of rework were like the epitome of her three years in the collection industry.

Initially, in 2020, Li Yi, who graduated from an English major, listened to his parents and returned to his hometown. At that time, it was difficult to find a job, so she said to give it a try and participated in the company's interview.

She remembers that the leader said in the interview, "We have been working on an IPO, and it will definitely be a listed company in the future." It sounds like a brainwashing pie, but it did take the first half of the way: the company tried to go public in the United States in 2019 and hit the "first share of collection", but it was unsuccessful.

Although she just wanted to be a transition, she mastered the skills of collection within a month of entering the industry, and even summed up the methodology in a short period of time: phishing collection - disguising identity, obtaining customer information, and finding out the weakness. 

This is not original to Li Yi, in the initial training stage, she was instilled with ideas such as how to obtain the customer's address and how to use voice tone to get the upper hand in negotiations.

A similar approach was attributed to "collection chaos" in the book "Research on the Legislation of China's Debt Collection Industry" by Tan Man, chairman of Hunan Yongxiong Asset Management Group, which he felt was a product of the alienation of the collection industry. He has also called for legislation to put an end to such phenomena. 

Li Yi clearly remembers that at the training meeting that year, the words that came out of the mouth of the "simple-looking" chairman were: "If you don't pay back, then I will get you unemployed." ”

"It's that feeling, unmistakable. ”

That year, the group contributed nearly 200 million yuan in tax revenue and was awarded the "Annual Outstanding Tax Contribution Meritorious Unit", which made her and more collectors feel that she was experiencing the rise of an industry.

However, the boom only lasted for 2 years.

By the end of 2023, there will be more people who can't pay off their debts.

After the explosion of personal debts in 2020, online loan blogger Nan Ke formed several groups of debtors to go ashore (pay off debts). In the beginning, every once in a while, someone in the group would jump out to say that they had successfully landed on the shore and send out red envelopes to celebrate. Slowly, fewer and fewer people went ashore.

Source: China Executive Information Disclosure Network

As of January 21, 2024, data from the China Enforcement Information Disclosure Network shows that there are more than 8.57 million judgment defaulters in China. 

Defeat magic with magic

Like a tug-of-war, more and more debtors dragged Li Yi and her colleagues into an overwhelmed predicament.

In mid-November 2023, Li Yi found that customers were overdue for longer and longer, and their willingness to repay was weakening. There are only 2-3 customers who are overdue for 3-6 months for online loans and credit cards, and the "old guys" who are overdue for 1-2 years occupy the page, and there are even debtors who maliciously defraud loans.

Li Yi had to be extra careful. She knew that such debtors might have been swept through the rounds and had been trained to deal with collections. 

In the debtor's own words, after owing more money, it doesn't seem to matter too much whether to go ashore or not. In the face of collection, as long as you put on a posture of "lying flat" or "rotten".

"I've had colleagues who have suffered. The debtor had a cold attitude on the phone, biting that he had no money, and said in a provocative tone, 'You collection dogs, don't bother. ’”

Li Yi recalled that her colleague was angry on the spot and scolded someone on the phone. I didn't think about it, the customer's side turned on the recording. Later, he took the recording to the public security bureau to report "illegal collection". At that time, the company was in the whirlpool of public opinion, and in order to prevent the shutdown from happening again, the colleague never appeared again. She said.

She has also heard of the "anti-collection coalition", where debtors will instead "doxx" collectors and even expose them on social media.

In Nanke's group, debtors share how to deal with collections.

Dialogue within the debt group Source: Respondents

For example, audio recordings or screenshots can be used to report collection, impersonating state officials, illegally collecting other people's information, and violently collecting. This was originally one of the collection methods that "Li Yimen" was proud of, but now "magic" has defeated "magic".

Another new problem is that the amount owed by debtors is reduced, which directly affects the motivation of collectors.

In late November last year, she contacted a 24-year-old overdue credit card customer. The customer's arrears were less than 1,000 yuan, and when asked about the reason, the company's salary had been delayed for 2 months. The customer's tone on the phone was sincere, saying that he would pay it back as soon as he had money.

Unlike this kind of small debtors, more debtors will say on the phone that they can't pay back the money, and it is useless to force it, while this group owes more debts.

In the group of debtors, the amount owed is usually indicated after the screen name:

xx, liabilities 40w, fully overdue, xx liabilities 33w, liabilities 196w......

They each have their own obscure stories, which are not only embarrassing, but also hateful.

Mr. and Mrs. Zhang Xiao are among them, and her husband has been using online loans and credit cards to cash out for gambling in the past few years. After owing more than 1 million debts, he once wanted to repent, but Zhang Xiao relented and borrowed from relatives and friends, thinking that he could exchange for a husband who turned back.

As a result, as soon as the arrears were paid, the husband started gambling again. It wasn't until the collection phone rang that Zhang Xiao realized that she had been deceived by her husband. But at that time, the arrears were approaching 2 million.

Borrowing money is also useful on the right path, such as opening a store and starting a business, emergency response to family illness, and in 2022, international students use online loans or credit cards to pay for their tuition fees because their family business failed. 

In Wang Ni's memories, those days were gray. Her parents, who were in the business of importing beef in Nanjing, were shut down in 2022 when the port of entry and exit was blocked, which caused prices to plummet. Her parents soon couldn't afford her school fees.

In order to continue her studies, she borrowed online loans from many platforms and prepared a POS machine. On the 16th of each month, the credit card repayment date is like an alarm clock. Several cards are placed on the table, and the money swiped out from one card is poured into another card, and then the money from the other card is returned to the online loan platform. 

The melancholy of facing the bill Source: Picture Worm Creative

Next, it is a matter of course to receive a call to collect the collection. But no matter how Wang Ni explained the reason for her arrears on the phone, the tone of the collection was indifferent. There are only two options in front of her: pay back the money or wait for the credit to go dark.

Li Yi's husband asked her if she felt that some of them were pitiful, but when faced with the debtors, Li Yi felt that many of them were to blame, especially "those who were in debt due to gambling and lost their families." ”

But there is also a helpless side, Li Yi remembers that the most weak sentence he heard at the end of the year was, "I only have 500 yuan on me, and I keep it to buy a ticket home." When I get home, I can only ask my parents for money, and if you want money, you have to let me go home. ”

"Then why are you borrowing money?"

"Can you handle it?"

She added the debtor's WeChat with a trumpet.

The other party's first circle of friends is a photo of a mobile phone, with the text: Prepare to go home for the New Year, get an IP13, change to a Xiaomi mobile phone + travel expenses.

Blurred borders

When troubled collectors start to exert their strength, it is easy to drag the industry into a gray area.

The dividing line appeared in June 2022.

The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) and the People's Bank of China (PBoC) jointly issued the Notice on Further Promoting the Standardized and Healthy Development of Credit Card Business (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"). The notice mentions that banking financial institutions shall not provide or disclose customer arrears information, and shall not collect from third parties unrelated to debts, so as to reduce the dependence on outsourcing collection.

But at the other end of the legal line, the mechanism for dealing with borrowers' defaults is not perfect. In the rapid spread of "consumerism", borrowers' credit concepts will be erased, which in turn will lead to the accumulation of "bad debts" in the credit field.

In practice, litigation, mediation or arbitration are costly. However, due to legal boundaries, financial institutions themselves cannot effectively recover their loans. As a result, collection became a chain of checks and balances between financial institutions and borrowers.

Even after the issuance of the Notice, the demand for collection is still strong.

It's just that the price of buying customer information has become higher. 

Originally, 200 yuan could buy the information of 60 customers, but during that time it rose to 300 yuan. The collector who bears the biggest risk has no change in income, or a basic salary of 2,500 yuan plus commission.

For a long time after that, Li Yi's income could only be maintained at around 5-6,000 yuan per month.

And her collection method has shifted from looking for relatives and friends to looking for companies. Her feeling is that after October 2022, keeping a job is the consensus of many people, and the weakness of most debtors is related to this, and she feels that she is too. 

Faced with a growing group of debtors, collectors had to try more radical tactics, and in the face of these new attempts, debtors began to huddle together in order to resolve the "legal consequences" in the collectors' mouths. ” 

Originally, two unrelated people were pushed into the octagonal cage of the fighting world by debt, and the boundary of collection began to gradually blur.

Up to now, on the Black Cat complaint platform, the number of complaints against the company has reached 155, including complaints such as "door-to-door intimidation", "SMS threats", "phone bombing", "explosive address book" and "harassment of others".

Private lending entered an era of savage growth and difficult regulation, which began with the expansion of Internet finance around 2013.

According to a research report by Ping An Securities, the total scale of Internet loans in 2017 was as high as about 430 billion US dollars. At the craziest time, the number of online loan companies in China was as high as 6,000, and more than 8,000 enterprises involved in collection. 

At that time, many online lending platforms attracted borrowers under the slogan of "one cent per month", but the actual situation was far from the case.

Taking an online loan platform as an example, if you borrow 29,000 yuan, the platform will deduct a handling fee of nearly 5,000 yuan when you lend money, but the repayment is still calculated according to the amount borrowed.

Relying on this set of "temptation" loan formulas, many debtors trickle down into a river, and eventually become an ink spot in Li Yi's form.

After more than 3 years of collection, Li Yi has become the pillar of the department by relying on his own exploration. If she continues to work, she will soon be able to sit in the position of minister.

However, at the end of December 2023, Li Yi's mind changed.

Because there is another accident in the collection industry. The version that Li Yi heard was that a collector called a debtor, and the content was probably - don't think that we are just calling, we will let you have a good year, and let your relatives and friends also have a good year.

The story ends with the fact that this leads to the suicide of a debtor. She looked at herself in this incident, "I have three children." 

The Minister frequently raised the issue of "security" at meetings during that time. Let everyone never conflict with customers in the course of their work. But good words are not an effective solution in most cases.

"A lot of people left the company at that stage. ”

But the collection industry hasn't gone away.

Borrowing text messages flooding life Source: Respondents

The obvious reason is that typing "loan" on the web nowadays still brings up countless ads. They are usually labeled as "low interest", "3-minute loan", etc., and some are accompanied by GIFs, as if money is at your fingertips.

Li Yi remembers that the minister mentioned at a meeting at the end of 2023 that there are still hundreds of billions of arrears that have not been collected by various online loan platforms. More collectors are still busy. On January 9, there were more than 8.6 million "lai" people, and by the 21st, there were nearly 30,000 people.

"As long as there are debtors, there are debt collection agencies. ”

 (At the request of the interviewee, Li Yi, Wang Ni, and Zhang Xiao are pseudonyms in the article)