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A significant social fact, often little mentioned in social scientific studies of debt and credit, is that debts are often not repaid, or at least not systematically. The repayment of debts is not automatic, and for this reason is the subject of a specific professional activity, debt collection. This article deals with the mechanics of credit obligations, focusing on the work of collecting rent debts in a public housing agency. We analyze this work as an enterprise of monetary capture and budgetary normalization, rooted in an institutional field that places this social landlord in a situation of competition with other creditors for the capture of household resources. The article therefore highlights the interactional techniques and institutional resources that debt collectors mobilize to ensure that indebted tenants prioritize the payment of rent, over other household expenses, and the repayment of their rental arrears, over other debts and creditors.