The Collection Process Continued

Hi,
The perfect scenario in a collection agency would be to receive an account, turn it over to a collector, and, in one call, resolve the account with payment in full. Unfortunately, this scenario does not happen very often. I'd like to identify some of the reasons which keep accounts from being quickly resolved:
1) The contact information for the debtor is obsolete. This requires the account to go through the skip tracing department to try to locate the debtor. In many instances, this is a lengthy process that may involve contacting previous next door neighbors, other creditors, past employers, and any personal referrals listed on the credit application. If these avenues fail, written communication to last known addresses may be used in the hopes of getting a forwarding address.
2) Phone calls to the debtor are ignored and initial notification letters are thrown away by the debtor. In these cases, if there is no other known way to contact the debtor, and follow up letters are ignored, these accounts may be turned over to the collection agency attorneys. Many times collection agency letters are ignored, but legal demand letters from a law firm bring debtors out of the woodwork.
3) Payment arrangements are reached and are broken by the debtor after one or two payments. This requires additional communication with the debtor to usually inform the debtor that the full balance is now due.
4) In some cases a debtor may request a call back from the collector after the initial call to give the debtor time to make a settlement proposal or suitable payment arrangement. This may require the collector to make numerous phone calls before the collector makes contact with the debtor again.
5) Collection agencies receive a much higher than average number of NSF checks. As a result, collectors have to make follow up phone calls to try to collect on the checks.
6) If a debtor proposes a settlement offer to a creditor, it is necessary for the collector to get the approval from the creditor and then get back in touch with the debtor. This can be a time consuming process.
These are some of the reasons why collections can be a long difficult ordeal. Tomorrow I will finish my discussion about the collection process.
Until then,
Alan