Lowering a Payment



Lowering A Payment**ANY CLIENT WHO IS LOOKING TO LOWER A PAYMENT MUST BE TRANSFERRED TO RECOUNSELING**This SOP explains the process of lowering a client’s payment if needed. If a client contacts ACCC, and it is determined that they are having a financial hardship, payments could be lowered. Lowering the payment depends on the creditor’s guidelines, hardship reason, and budget.Reference:RC SOP001Creating or Revising a BudgetValidate client. Discuss with the client as to why are they looking for a lowered payment; what has changed that makes them unable to continue with the current payment. (i.e., loss of income, additional expenses, medical reasons). Clients need to have a financial hardship to lower the payments. The definition of a financial hardship is a change beyond the client’s control.Find out what kind of payment they feel they can afford; see if the client has gone over their budget to determine this. Try to have the client be specific; if a client states anything will help, this might not be the case. (Sometimes accounts can be lowered by $10 but that will not help the client). It is up to the RC rep to help the client determine what the right option may rm the client that we do not have the final authority to lower payments, that the creditors do, and certain guidelines have to be followed. Inform the client that the accounts need to be paid in full within 60 months or certain creditors can drop the account from the program if not completed within 60 months OR a few creditors will lower, and this will extend the payments for longer than 60 months. Let them know we should revise their budget to determine where they are financially and to see if we can suggest items in the budget that can be trimmed or removed (Refer to “Creating or Revising a Budget”-RC SOP001) or go over increasing income if possible.If the client is looking to lower the payment temporarily (1 or 2 months), we will not contact a creditor to lower the payment; however, we can lower the payment if the client has reallocated funds. If the client has reallocated funds, then the payment can be lowered by the amount of the reallocated funds for a month or two or longer depending on the clients’ situation. Recounseling will monitor the accounts via the work queue and make any necessary adjustments. If the client has reallocated funds and does not wish to reallocate them and insists on lowering the payment, inform the client that the accounts have to be paid in full within 60 months. If the accounts will continue to pay off in the required amount of time, the payment can be lowered. We will go over the date of completion with and without the reallocated funds to show the amount of time saved by keeping the payment the same or by lowering and extending the time. If the payment will go over the 60-month amount of time, then the client will have to sign new documentation extending the 60-month time frame before the payment can be lowered. If the client is trying to lower the payment after an account is paid in full through ACCC, the account has to be confirmed paid in full before Recounseling should discuss the actual payment amount or date of completion, estimates can be given but before the actual payment is officially lowered Recounseling will have to discuss the date of completion with and without lowering the payment. If the client does not have reallocated funds and the payment cannot be lowered, you will have to go over the ramifications of missing payments and making up the payment.When the payment needs to be lowered permanently, you will have to look over the client’s account to see which creditor will allow the payment to be lowered. Go to Accounts, then List, then right click on the creditor and select “Creditor Details” to view the Hardship Comments. Once you have determined what creditors will allow the payment to be lowered, you will then follow the creditor’s guidelines to lower a payment. See section 6 to determine how to make sure the account will be paid off within 60 months.Contact creditor for updated balance and current APR.To determine the amount of time left in the program: find out the acceptance date of the account minus the current date and that will give you the number of months in the program.Take 60 months minus the number of months from section 6A and this will give you the number of months left in the program (6/30/08 to 6/30/09= 12 months, 60-12= 48 more months in the program).Go to .Go to Credit Card Payoff Calculator.Enter the credit card balance, credit card’s interest rate, and the payment per month, or desired months to payoff and select “calculate.”This amount will be the estimated amount the payment could be lowered too and still complete the program within 60 rm the client that they must continue to make the full payment until we notify them that the payment has been lowered.Open an “RC-New Issue” with accurate details of the call with the client, as to what account will be lowered, the rep spoken to at the creditors, and what suggestions were made to the client. It is important to be detailed in making these comments. If follow up is needed, the parent issue remains open and you must add a follow up date to know when to contact the creditors again. When payments have been lowered and the issue is resolved, you can close the issue.HOW TO LOWER A PAYMENT:Go to Accounts, then List, then double click on the creditor to change the “Minimum Accepted” field. Enter reason for the Tracking Payment Change. Click on “OK.”Change the “Default Payment” field. Enter reason for the Tracking Payment Change. Click on “OK.” A “Reallocate to Next Priority” pop-up will appear, stating, “Would you like to reallocate the amount of $XX.XX to the next priority account?” Select “No.” as we are decreasing due to hardship.Go to Payment Schedule to make sure that the changes were entered correctly. Select “Change” to the right of the “Status” box.In the “New Admin Status,” click on the magnifier and double click on “Lowered Payment.” Select “OK.”Double click in the white box below the “Start Date,” choose hot pink as the color and select “OK.” In the Add Note section, enter “LOWERED PAYMENT to $244 on 3/5/2019 perm or “LOWERED PAYMENT to $244 on 11/6/2018 temp for Mar/Apr pmt.”Click “Add Note” and select “OK.”When a payment no longer needs to remain lowered, select “Change” to the right of the “Status” box and highlight the “LOWERED PAYMENT” and delete information from the New Admin Status field and select “OK.” ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download