Welcome! My name is Jason Milleisen. I founded Distressed Loan Advisors in 2009. If you’re interested in a case evaluation, you can schedule that here. Even if you can’t settle, I can walk you through your options, and what you can expect from Treasury in terms of collection actions they may take against you. Unlike some firms out there, I’m not going to give you false hope. I’ll tell you the reality of your situation.
I had a prospective client call me, and when they told me how much they owe, I told them it was unlikely to to settle.
Why? Because the way the Treasury negotiates make the SBA look like they’re giving away free money to anyone who even glances in their direction.
The Treasury, on the other hand, is tougher to get something past than an NHL goalie.
In addition to being difficult to come to terms with, your lovely government has created a gauntlet of inefficiency to ensure maximum frustration on your part:
- Phoning It In – If you attempt to call the Treasury to discuss your debt, make sure you have a good book handy. I’ve done that wait, sometimes over an hour.
- Whack-A-Mole – Once you do get through, good luck ever trying reach the same agent twice (especially fun when two agents are telling you two different things). The agents do not have their own phone numbers or even their own extensions. You just have to call the 800-number and play Treasury Agent roulette.
- 1996 Called…and wants to know why an agency that is tasked with collecting debt doesn’t even have email addresses for their agents. In order to send documents, you have to FAX them. And each agent doesn’t even have their own fax. You fax it over, and hope the agent you are sending it to picked it up before someone else uses it as a napkin. On several occasions, I’ve had to re-fax documents because the agent said they never arrived.
Sure, the Treasury will promise to consider your offer, but first you’ll need to give them all your financial info. That’s more of a convenient trick to get their hands on all your personal financial info.
According to a prospective client that called me, apparently there is a company of “experts” claims they will review the file to ensure the paperwork was processed correctly. Or something. I told the prospective client to find out what percentage of clients end up getting out of the debt as a result of this company’s “expert review”. I’d venture to guess the majority of clients end up shelling out cash only to have this company tell them that they were not successful.
Anyway, back to the Treasury’s playbook. When I first started 10 years ago, I took them at their word and assumed that they were negotiating in good faith. And then I attempting a few settlements with them. Lost faxes were fun, but even more alarming was the time an agent verbally agreed to a settlement amount, and once we sent the paperwork, asked for more money. How convenient that they never put anything in writing while we are negotiating.
Finally, my absolute favorite example of our government at work was the time I was dealing with an agent who was unfathomable incompetent. After I picked my jaw up off the floor (I can’t recall exactly what he said, but it sounded like his first day on the job and lacked a basic understanding of personal finance), I asked to speak with his manager.
His answer? Nope. That was it. I mean, how to effectively deal with a black hole of incompetence that has almost zero accountability? In many case, you unfortunately don’t.
One of these days, I’m going to start firing off letters to people in the government to let them know that their Treasury is letting hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars walk out the door every single day because of their completely short-sighted approach to collections.
I have a client that owes $1 Million. He can offer $100,000. Rather than make an intelligent decision, the Treasury will reject this offer. My client will file for chapter 7 bankruptcy, and they will get nothing. That’s the financial equivalent of a really pretty girl asking you out for a date, and turning her down because you are holding out for Heidi Klum. So good luck Treasury, I hope you enjoy sitting by the phone waiting with baited breath for Heidi to call.
