Entering the World of a Collection Agency

Hi,
In yesterday's blog, I discussed some of the types of people collection agencies deal with on a daily basis. Now let's look at the mission statement of a collection agency and examine some of the common misconceptions about collection agencies. The mission statement of a collection agency is to recover as much money as possible on any account given to them by their clients. Their goal is to achieve this under any means possible allowed by the Fair Debt Collection Act. Some of the common misconceptions about collection agencies are:
1) Collectors enjoy harassing people at home and at work. Fact: Every collector on the planet would like to resolve an account with one phone call. The only reason for additional phone calls on an account are due to broken payment arrangements.
2) Collectors are unreasonable when it comes to accepting settlement offers on accounts. Fact: Creditors have already lost anywhere from 15%-50% on their bill, and as a result are much more unlikely to accept low settlement offers. As collectors are paid a small salary plus commission on the amount they collect, they are highly motivated to take any reasonable settlement and offer it to the creditor.
3) Skip tracers practice unethical business behavior. When skip tracing professional deadbeats, skip tracers on occasion might represent themselves to neighbors, coworkers etc., as a friend of the debtor to obtain pertinent contact information.
4) Collectors are hard nosed and inflexible. Fact: Due to the nature of the business, collectors are constantly under a lot of stress. Certainly they have their bad and good days as do all of us. But, they are primarily paid on commission and are very interested in resolving accounts as quickly and efficiently as possible.
It's important when dealing with a collection agency to remember that the collector you are talking to is used to broken arrangements, broken promises, and in many cases, verbal abuse. If you communicate honestly, he or she will be more than happy to resolve your account as quickly as possible to your mutual satisfaction. Tomorrow, I'll write in detail about the collection process.
Until then,
Alan