Posts Tagged ‘debt collection services’

Which Type Of Debt Collection Agency Have The Best Debt Collection Records?

Saturday, March 28th, 2009

collection accounts

It is no secret that businesses lose millions of dollars each year because of delinquent accounts. They are continuously looking for ways to increase the quotient of bad debt recovery. When a customer fails to make their payments or falls behind, then a good debt collection agency knows that the more time that passes, the harder it will be to collect on these debts; therefore, early debt recovery is a must in order to keep losses down.

Trying to collect on past due accounts can be extremely frustrating, which is perhaps one reason why a company may want to consider hiring a financial collection agency. These professional agencies have both the time and resources necessary, in order to contact debtors and increase your bad debt collection revenue. This leaves you the time necessary in order to keep focused on your business and increasing sales.

Not all debt collection services offer the same services or charge the same rates, but they generally start out with sending the debtor demand letters, and then calling them and if warranted, they may suggest legal action. A third party debt collection agency can normally be more objective in the collection process and as a result of that they usually have good results.

As indicated, the more delinquent an account becomes the less chance of successfully collecting on it. For instance, if it is ninety days past due, then the account will start to depreciate faster. When it is 6 months past due, the depreciation is so far gone that only 30% of money owing may be recovered. This type of loss is called depreciation of accounts receivable and it is the main reason for jumping on past due accounts and obtaining collections help right away. This depreciation of collection accounts literally destroys the profit margin of these businesses.

One of the most common mistakes that a business makes is to wait to send delinquent accounts to collections. The key to successful collections, whether it is a third party debt collection agency or in-house, is to tighten and of course shorten the process, getting the account sent out quickly, within 90 days at the most. The longer you wait will only result in lowering the chance of recovering the debt money, so start the process early and you will collect more revenue.

What To Look For When Employing Collection Agency Services

Saturday, March 21st, 2009

collection agency services

You have finally realized that some of your customers require a great amount of follow up before they actually pay you what they owe, which takes away from being able to devote your time to the more important tasks involved with running a business. You may want to consider hiring a collection agency services company to help you recover money owed through bad debt collection strategies. Hiring a company to handle collections for you will also save you a great deal of time and money.

If you decide to check out hiring one of these companies, then be sure you check them out thoroughly. Are the companies able to perform collections in your particular business? Whether it is commercial debt collection or bad check collection, it makes a difference. You want to make sure that all of the collectors working in the company are trained to deal with your customers. They are going to be representing you and tempers tend to run high in collections; one bad conversation can have lasting repercussions.

Be sure to ask for references, as a good agency should have no trouble providing them to you. Since there are many different approaches to collections that different companies employ, make sure you approve of the methods the company you have hired will use. Collections laws vary from state to state and out of the country so be sure that the collection agency services company that you hire is up to date on all current laws and regulations.

Normally, when you have accounts that are behind on payments and in collections, you are going to have some that have “skipped,” meaning they have moved and left no forwarding information. These skips cost businesses a lot of time and money, so most debt collection services also offer some type of skip-tracing service. The costs involved vary greatly from company to company and will also depend on how much time it takes to look for a debtor.

Since written correspondence is a primary part of a collection agency’s tools, you should ask for copies of the different collection letters that they send out and then compare them against each other. It is also advantageous to request a copy of the different “scripts” they use when speaking with debtors, as all collection agency services handle their accounts differently. In this way, you will know what they will be saying and how they will be saying it. It is also important to find out how frequently phone calls will be made, as there are now laws pertaining to how often a debtor can be contacted.