Every day companies contact us looking for help with past due customers. We are always willing to listen to everyone that calls and attempt to provide answers to any question that arises.
After thousands of calls, these are the top 5 most common questions asked about using a collection agency.
- How much does it cost?
Businesses are concerned about the cost of hiring a collection agency. While some collection agencies will charge upfront fees, all of the collection agencies within the CollectionAgencyMatch network work on a contingency rate basis. This means the collection agencies charge nothing up front and only get paid contingent on successfully collecting the money that is owed.
2. What is the success rate?
What are the odds the customers will actually pay if the account is turned over to a collection agency? This is a very important factor when considering bringing on an agency to represent your company. Most agencies will be up front and honest about the initial assessment of the current situation. If a collection agency views the debt as impossible to collect, they will probably turn down the potential client.
The older the debt is, the less likely the money can be recovered which means a higher rate will have to be charged. On the other side, if accounts are under Six months old, a more competitive contingency rate is usually given.
Tip: When you doubt you will receive a payment from a client, find a collection agency!
3. Should you take the debtor to court?
Many companies call and quickly inform me, “I have won a judgement from the court”. If you have had to take a debtor to court, this usually means the debtor has stopped all communication or informed they have zero intentions of paying.
The court process can be time consuming and sometimes costly. I highly suggest utilizing a collection agency to represent your business first and let them attempt to collect the money. If they aren’t able to succeed after a few months, you can then take the debtor to court. Beware; it is still up to you to collect on the judgement!
4. How long will it take to recover the money?
Most collection agencies will see results within the first 30 days of the account being placed with them. Debt collection agencies will get to work quickly on attempting to recover the money owed so they can usually get results fast.
Many times they will collect the payment in full but other times they will have to accept payment installments from the debtor in order to get the balance paid off.
The collection agency will usually know within the first few weeks if the debtor has any intentions of paying on the debt or not. If payment is successfully collected, the money will be deposited into the clients account typically within a matter of a few business days.
5. What is required to get started?
Once the main concerns have been addresses, businesses want to know what is needed to get started working with a collection agency.
The process is usually quite simple!
The collection agency can send over a contract agreement for the new client along with instructions on how to place the debtors account with the agency.
The debt collection agency typically only needs the customer’s name but other information such as phone number, mailing address, social security number can speed the process up.
Any documentation such as the unpaid invoice, contacts, e-mail correspondence, can be very helpful to the collection agency once they start the collection process.
We hope answering the top 5 most common questions will help you make the best decision on moving forward with using a collection agency.
CollectionAgencyMatch.com has the largest network of collection agencies within the United States who can assist you in recovering money owed.
