Other Considerations

A Written Contract with the collection agency should be:

• Available before you place the claim
• Easy to understand
• Explains all rates and charges
• No unexpected obligations
• Include terms for termination
• Include terms for withdrawing a claim

Is the collections agency bonded?

• By ACA or some other group
  • Provides protection for moneys collected but not yet remitted

Is the collection agency licensed?

• If your claims are retail collections, find out where the agency is licensed.

Does the agency offer credit reporting?

• This is important for creditors who have large number of claims
• All larger creditors typically do their own reporting.
• The threat of a creditor being reported is more potent than actual reporting as far as getting the debt paid.
  Smaller creditors getting a debt reported have minimal impact on successfully collecting.
• If your focus is on getting paid, credit reporting is not a critical factor

Where is the collections agency’s location?

• Typically not important – debt collections are done via telephone, not in person.
• Occasionally some debtors in smaller communities do care about local reputation.
  • Debtors who are contacted by a local agency may be more motivated to pay.
• The agency’s location is far less important than the debt collections process and skill level.

Summary

This completes our information on things to consider when hiring a collection agency and how to get and analyze information during this process.

If you need a great collections agency that specializes in large commercial collections claims, please contact us here at The Kaplan Group. If our expertise does not match with your needs, we can probably refer you to one or more reputable agencies identified through our industry activities. Just fill out the Request A Quote form and we’ll get back to you.

Checklist

Select­ing a Col­lec­tion Agency Checklist

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