Library Book Past Due: Loan Denied

Chances are you have overdue library books laying around in your dorm room or apartment. Maybe the book you checked out six months ago has become a part of your décor—a handy paperweight on your desk or an unconventional coaster on your coffee table.

 

You’ve thought to yourself, no biggie, right? Not quite. You might want to dust off the CD’s, DVD’s and other library materials you have and drop them off. Return them before the fines you’ve racked up get turned over to a collection agency.

 

Turns out, more and more libraries think their missing property and your laid-back attitude about it are quite a big deal. And they’re hitting you where it hurts the most, your wallet.

 

If you’re not careful that overdue book could prevent you from getting a loan for a car or a house.

 

Libraries Collecting on Overdue Fines with Big Help

Many libraries have teamed up with Unique Management Services, Inc., a collection agency that specializes in recovering library books and late fees.

 

The company based in Jeffersonville, Indiana, tracks down late accounts for more than 850 clients (libraries of all sizes) in the United States, England, Canada and Australia. Its goal is to shock library abusers—most of whom are average, well-meaning people—into action, Kenes Bowling, the company’s manager for customer development, tells The New York Times.

 

The debt collector’s website states it send letters that gently nudge people into returning items that rightfully belong to the library and the people it serves.

 

New York Times reporters Anne Barnard and Jo Craven McGinty write that included in one of the company’s standard letters is language like: “Once reported, this adverse information can stay on your record for seven years!”  The letter goes on to warn that car dealers, department stores and banks may learn of the library users’ misdeeds. “Why allow this to happen?”

 

The company typically sends out two letters and follows up with a phone call to your home. It claims phone calls improve results as much as 30 percent over letters alone.

 

The Moral: Be a Good Patron

With such verbiage, it’s hard not to see that your local library means business.

 

It’s not that libraries want to be seen as bullies. But when you consider that in a little over a decade, Unique Management Services has managed to retrieve $5.8 million for the New York Public Library System alone, you can see why libraries are turning to debt collection agencies like UMS for help.

 

Libraries want to penalize people who believe items can be checked out to infinity and beyond and those who simply want to sell them or keep items for their personal collections.

 

If you’re reported for owing a library fine, you could see your credit rating drop by 100 points or more, Craig Watts a spokesperson for Fair Isaac, the company that scores your credit history, tells CNN.com.

 

So don’t wait to be tattled on. Just take your library items back and pay up before you pay too much.