Guidance for Recurring Issues

Scenario 1

Clients listed more than one mortgage, but the second mortgage only reflects the debt balance and not the mortgage payment amount.
 

Counselor Action

If the missing payment is the only thing wrong with the budget, the counselor will push back to ask for the payment amount.
Example: Before we can proceed, please provide the monthly payment amount for the $(insert balance amount) mortgage debt.
 
It’s also worth mentioning that if the client selected “trying to prevent/delay foreclosure” that we would not push back for the payment amount as long as there are arrears listed.
 
For WC – If there are more issues with the budget that need to be addressed, not just the missing mortgage payment, use the “issues identified” protocol as outlined in the Counseling Guidelines document.

 

Scenario 2

WC counselors are wanting to push back to verify the spelling of the names more frequently than is necessary.

Counselor Action

Counselors do NOT need to push back any longer when:
  • The name appears to be a nickname such as Johnny, Timmy, Billy, etc.
    • We will now trust they have entered their legal name.
  • The name is spelled differently in the email than it is on the account, such as lisasusov@cricketdebt.com but my account name is Lisa Susoev
    • There are too many emails variations entered by the client and their attorney to use this as a credible source for name validation.
It remains our policy that names that are MacGregor or McCarthy should have the appropriate capitalization and should be corrected without pushing back as well as names with apostrophes like O’Malley & O’Rourke.
 
Anything that falls outside of these scenarios should be left as is or if you truly feel like it’s spelled incorrectly, please reach out to OM.

 

Scenario 3

Counselors are using the food spending guideline as the standard for all client food spending and it’s causing them to switch their decision from Repayment to BK.

Counselor Action

The food spending guideline of $500 per person was introduced because we added other items (alcohol, tobacco, pet food, etc.) to the food spending area and it caused the entire food spending category to show higher amounts. It was meant to prevent counselors from thinking the client could cut back on their food spending to pay back/down debt with the extra money. It was not meant for counselors to assume the spending is too low if it’s under $500 per person and in some cases with a close budget, decide to recommend BK because they are under-spending on food.