Reasons to Hire a Collection Agency to Recover Your Past Due Accounts

By Loren Zeidman, President of American Credit Association, LLC

Collecting past due debts can be time-consuming and distressing. Alternatively, hiring a reliable and reputable debt collection agency significantly can help solve these problems for you.

Many businesses provide credit in one form or another, whether a bank lends money for a car or home, a doctor’s office allows you time to pay for services rendered, your local mechanic gives you time to pay for needed repairs, and when a business exchanges products or services on credit with another company. Sooner or later, when someone becomes delinquent and is unable to pay you back in a timely manner, they become what are known as a debtor. In such cases, it may become difficult to acquire your money back. No matter how many times you call and plead with them to correct the wrong, the result may be unsatisfactory. By hiring a collection agency, you can gain certain control over this difficult situation.

What Is A Collection Agency?

A collection agency is a company that is hired to recover bad debts. The individuals who perform these tasks are known as debt collectors. In a reputable agency, debt collectors are highly trained and possess vital skills in compassion to understand the needs of the debtor and what caused them to become delinquent, and they learn skip tracing skills of locating debtors who have moved.

Professional collection agencies possess the required skills and resources to efficiently recover past due debts. They also follow stringent rules and regulations governed by local and federal laws.

While some collection agencies specialize in specific types of collections, others represent a wide variety of creditors. Debt can be collected for any type of business or organization, including professional services, healthcare, universities/private schools, insurance companies, government/municipalities, contracting, and many others.

Why Use a Collection Agency?

A reputable collection agency works in a professional manner, believing in reducing bad debt without belittling the debtor, and collecting debt using a humanistic approach, which is highly important especially in these economic times. Your collection agency should operate as an extension of you and your company, having your best interests in mind when collecting the debt. It must understand your needs and specifically how you want your accounts handled.

Most collection agencies work on a “no collection, no fee” basis, while others may charge an up-front fee and a percentage. Be careful of these fees and understand what you are getting for the pre-paid service, as you do not want to add to your losses and you cannot always recover pre-collection fees.

A full-service collection agency will have many resources that the average creditor does not, including listings with credit bureaus, collection attorneys, and many collection tools for locating today’s debtor. Further, your collection agency should supply you with comprehensive and month-end reports.

When Hiring A Collection Agency, Ask Questions

Here are just a few questions to ask a prospective collection agency, and you may have others

• How long has the company been operating?
• Do they have a State License?
• Do they have experience in the type of debt(s) you have?
• Do they have references to share in your industry?
• What is the cost for the collection of a debt?

For more information, please visit American Credit Association at www.americancredit1.com or email us at sales@americancredit1.com. We are happy to be of service.

American Credit Association, LLC
Your Collection Solution Since 1953
1-866-668-Debt (3328)
Loren Zeidman, President Ext. 105
Barb Chupack, Sales Ext 108