There are thousands of collection agencies in the USA but only a small percentage can collect nationwide. Twenty states require a state license for commercial collection agencies (e.g. B2B collections) and thirty states require a license when collection agencies collect from individual consumers. In addition, each state that requires a license also requires a separate bond to guaranty that clients get paid when their agencies collect. This requires a substantial financial investment plus verification that the collection agency meets each state’s licensing requirements.
The Kaplan Group is a nationwide collection agency with all of the necessary licenses and bonds to collect from businesses in all 50 states. If you are looking to collect from business customers anywhere in the United Statas, our 85% success rate on large viable claims and very competitive contingency rates make our commercial collection agency one of the top rated agencies in the USA. We specialize in commercial collections and do not collect from consumers.
If you need to collect from consumers, we give free referrals to reputable nationwide and local collection agencies here on our website. Simply fill out the Get A Free Quote form, and based on the information you provide, we will generate a list of qualified agencies from our referral network and display the results. These results include name, contingency rates, specialties, website links and other relevant information.
Licenses are required in almost 30 states for consumer collections. A completely different set of federal and state laws, such as FDCPA, govern collecting from individuals. The vast majority of consumer collection agencies do not provide nationwide service. The Kaplan Group handles only B2B collections, but we will gladly provide referrals to reputable consumer collection agencies. If you are owed money by a business, using a collection agency that only does commercial debt collection is likely to get better results. A different set of skills is required to have success collecting invoices due from business than the typical credit card, medical or student loan debt owed by consumers.
How A Collection Agency Can Effectively Provide Nationwide Service
The primary communication method used by in the commercial collection process is the telephone. Most of our success in collecting money comes from getting the debtor on the phone and making them feel the need to pay. The messages we leave for the debtor when they don’t answer are part of the process. Debtors do not know where we are calling from-they only know that we are on the phone. When Mr. Kaplan travels internationally to negotiate deals, he uses Skype to stay in touch with those companies who owe large balances or have committed to immediate payments. Our office phones forward to cell phones so we can make and receive calls even if we aren’t at our desks. The revolution in communication technology allows debt collection agencies to provide effective services from virtually anywhere.
The Internet has also made it much easier to get specific information from anywhere in the world. At The Kaplan Group, will look at satellite photos to get an idea of the type of building the debtor is located in. We’ll look at street views and then comment to the debtor regarding the signage on their business or their neighbors business as if we had a private investigator do a drive-by. We will use Zillow to get an estimate of the value of someone’s house and compare this to their mortgage to understand the financial pressure or comfort they may be feeling personally as well as the possibility of recovering on a personal guarantee. We are sure that most debt collection agencies do not use these resources and many others that we use here at The Kaplan Group. We stay on the cutting edge of both subscription and free methods for obtaining information on debtors so that we can provide extremely effective results on a nationwide basis.
Debt Collection Litigation
In addition, we have a nationwide network of debt collection lawyers if litigation is required. These
attorneys will work on a contingency basis for The Kaplan Group and our clients. Many other debt collection agencies talk about attorney forwarding services. Our experience has been that these are worthless. We tracked hundreds of claims that were forwarded and saw no results whatsoever. We get exceptional results when we collect under the name of our in house law firm if we cannot collect under our collection agency name. Over 97% of our successful claims are accomplished without going to court. This shows that it is the quality of the collection effort, not the location of the collector.
However, when litigation is required, most of the time the litigation must be filed in the location of the debtor. Our nationwide network of debt collection attorneys provides this service. We are very selective on which claims we believe should go to court. Using this criteria, we collect money on more than 50% of the lawsuits our clients choose to file. When we do not collect money, the reason in over 80% of those cases is that the companies go out of business before we have a chance to collect on the judgment.
Nationwide Commercial Debt Collection
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