Top 10 Debtor Excuses

Excuses – you hear them every day. Many readers have shared their strangest ones in our insideARM discussion forum. For your reading enjoyment, here are our “Top 10 Favorite Debtor Excuses:”

# 10. "The check is in the mail"

# 9. “How dare you call on a Sunday? I am going to pray for bad things to happen to you.”

# 8. “I don’t owe a deficiency balance; you should have never lent me the money.”

# 7. “I know people in the FBI and CIA and I’m gonna’ get them involved.” (Over a $350 overdraft)

# 6. "Ya’ll ain’t gonna furnish (garnish) my wages, are ya?"

# 5. "I can’t pay because I am indignant" (I think he meant "indigent")

# 4. "OK, let me get this straight, you want me to release the $45,000 bank levy so you can make payments? Um…No!"

# 3. "Well, I guess I’ll just have to sign up for welfare so I can get you paid then."

# 2. “You just don’t understand, my grandfather just died, I had to take the dog to the vet, my son needed surgery, I was out of checks but I have them now, oh but you have probably heard all this before."

… and the #1 Favorite Debtor Excuse is:

“I will come through the phone and give you an eargasm if you stop calling.”

Some excuses that can’t go unmentioned …

“I had a debtor that would talk to herself for HOURS, describing how the government is out to get her, and how there are black helicopters following her around. She also sent me a 25-page Unabomber-type manifesto describing how the government is responsible for all her debt.”

“A woman sent us a letter stating that she couldn’t pay her bill because Bill Clinton and the CIA had planted bugs all over her house and had hidden cameras in the walls. She was afraid to call us because she thought they would steal her identity when she verified her information. She also apologized for how sloppy her hand writing was because she was hiding in the closet writing the letter with the lights out so they couldn’t see who she was writing to.”

“I had a debtor explain to me that he couldn’t pay his bill because he couldn’t find a job, and he couldn’t find a job because he had a felony for theft and every employer in his city wouldn’t hire someone with a felony. I asked why he didn’t just avoid mentioning the felony on the application, certainly not every company paid for background checks. He responded, "I couldn’t lie. I’m too much of an honest person to do that!"

What excuses have you heard? Share them with us in the comments section below or on the discussion forum.