Posts Tagged collection agencies
Two Important Prosecutors Go After Debt Collection Agencies
Posted by Mallory Megan in Currency & Finance on April 24th, 2010
In recent news it was revealed that powerful prosecutors in Louisiana and Washington made announcements of actions they had obtained against debt collection agencies and their owners and managers.
Louisiana’s attorney general James Caldwell announced on Friday that his office had gotten a hold of injunctions against two collection agencies and their owners. On the same day, Rob McKenna, Washington’s Attorney General said that his office had settled charges with a collection agency that had promised to stay on the straightened arrow. In a press release, Caldwell’s office stated that in late December they had gotten a hold of an injunction against Bush and Kennedy, Inc, a Baton Rouge based collection company. The order he won placed restrictions on the business, banning them from operating further, and specifically, ordered that two of the firm’s principals, Quay W. Pattott Jr, and William S. Fesguson were banned from conducting business together.
Late last week, a judge slammed Ferguson and Parrott with added injunctions as per the request of Caldwell’s office. Ferguson is banned from using unfair and deceptive practices and acts at his current place of business, Franklin, Grant and Associates Incorporated, a collection company based out of Metairie Louisiana. Parrott is completely restricted against conducting any new business at his new place of work, Metairie based Halsey and Associates, LLC.
McKenna’s Washington office said that Topco Financial Services Inc, a Washington based collection agency agreed not to threaten, harass or curse out debtors as part of a settlement. The collection agency has been ordered to pay around $38,000 in legal fees and penalties. An additional $82,000 in fees and penalties were suspended provided that the company agrees with the settlement terms.
In accordance with their agreement, Topco is prohibited from harassing, intimidating, threatening and embarrassing debtors, including using profanity. They are restricted from implying that failure to pay a delinquent bill will result in suspension, a revocation, or impairment of the debtor’s driver’s license. They are banned from threatening debtors with impairment of their credit rating. However, the company is allowed to legally report debts to credit reporting agencies.
Mallory Megan works for a debt collection company. Also she writes articles on business, finance, consumer spending and collection agencies.
Debt Collection 101
Posted by Mallory Megan in Currency & Finance on April 15th, 2010
If the person in debt agrees to pay, the bill collector will record this commitment and will check up later to make sure that the payment was made. If a debtor does not pay, the collector will draw up a statement about their delinquency for the credit department of whatever company they are working for. In extreme cases, debt collectors may request repossession, hand over the account to a lawyer or disconnect service.
Collectors must be careful to abide by the Federal and State procedures that apply due to the fact that people’s financial problems have the capacity to be a sensitive issue. The Federal Trade Commission says that a collector must positively identify the person who owes money before they can announce that the purpose of the call is to collect debt.
Then, the debt collector will issue a statement, at times known as a “mini-Miranda” which tells the customer that they are in fact a collector.
Additionally, debt collectors must abide by the state laws that dictate how they must proceed. A lot of companies use electronic systems now to help bill collectors remember all of the laws and regulations regarding each call.
Collectors use computers and an assortment of automated systems in their jobs. Companies will keep track of their accounts by using computers, and collectors are able to keep track of collection attempts in the past and other information in notes on the computer. As with most call centers, collectors use headsets in lieu of regular phones. Automatic dialing allows bill collectors to work efficiently and quickly and with no chance of dialing the wrong number. Typically, in house bill and account collectors work in an office environment, people who work for a third party agency may work in a call center type environment.
The work has the capacity to be stressful; people get confrontational when they are asked about their debts. The best collectors have to face rejection regularly, but still be prepared to make their next call in a positive tone of voice. Luckily for them, a number of debtors appreciate help in resolving their debts.
Mallory Megan is employed by a debt collection company. She also composes articles on business, finance, consumer spending and collection agencies.
Debt Collection Companies Explore Work At Home Opportunities
Posted by Mallory Megan in Currency & Finance on April 12th, 2010
Even though it is always a good idea to hire more workers to add to your ranks, keeping the best employees in a collections agency is key. It has become a recent trend that tenured collectors are now requesting to work at home.
It might be a smart move to accommodate for them considering that their commissions have been lower as of late, and the stress of the commute or a need to spend more time with family may drive your best collectors away.
Work at home programs have not become an every day thing yet, however there are a few agencies that are making exceptions for certain debt collectors. Typically these collectors are the best at what they do and may work from home a few days a week.
The way that working at home works is simple. Usually, the collector is set up with a computer that can access the computers at the office and they are given designated phone equipment to use. The beauty of it is that everything the collector does can be monitored still, as if he or she was working in the call center itself.
But before you start to send employees to work at home, it is imperative to assess the good and bad qualities of each collector. But studies have shown that if a collector is a good candidate to work from home, they will be more productive, take fewer breaks, and without social interaction with other employees they can focus on the job itself.
There are still a good amount of issues that have to be addressed when one thinks about working at home. First, there are potential data security performance control and data security issues. Additionally, in light of all of the recent laws impacting the collections business, it is not probable that we will know of many formal work at home programs anytime soon. Yet experts believe it is not good to alienate the best workers who are inquiring about work at home. They predict that we will see more collection agencies allowing collectors to work from home within the next five years.
Mallory McGuinness works for a debt collection agency. She also composes articles on business, finance, the credit industry and collection agencies.
Credit Card Business Model Tested In Current Downturn
Posted by Mallory Megan in Currency & Finance on March 19th, 2010
Discover Financial Services, facing the necessity for further funding while income is decreasing and credit card charge offs are increasing, received only a unenthusiastic response from the equity market as a public offering last week of its average shares had to be priced at a 12 percent reduction to the market.
Right now there is a extraordinary accumulation of risk aversion when it comes to credit cards, said Dan North, chief economist at Euler Hermes ACI, a trade credit insurance firm.
The credit panic started last fall. As a result, people started using their credit cards less, meaning less interchange income from transactions. The credit card firms have also become defensive, cutting credit lines, raising fees and changing interest rates from fixed to variable, both in response to the need for more revenue now and to prepare for the restrictions from the Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights, which goes into effect next year.
According to North, Discover cardholders have fragile credit ratings, on a whole, than holders of MasterCards, Visas and American Express cards, though those companies are struggling the same financial challenges.
All of those elements have also made it hard for a new competitor in the market, Revolution Money, a payment platform complete with credit card and money transfer service planed to compete with major card companies Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express. Revolution LLC, headed by AOL founder Steve Case, had longed to compete mainly by offering better security through a chip-based card and lower interchange fees to merchants.
A group of niche players that are gaining more traction now, according to a Scripps Howard News Service report, is peer-to-peer lending (P2P), which completely bypasses traditional financial institutions. P2P lending services bundle pledges from individual investors and offer small loans to other individuals at attractive rates, a model that could evolve into direct competition for credit cards.
Mallory Megan works for a debt collection agency. She also composes stories on business, finance, and collections agencies.
Flagger County Officials Put Off Ambulance Collections Decision
Posted by Mallory Megan in Currency & Finance on March 19th, 2010
Commissioners on Monday deferred a decision to hire a collection agency because of delinquent ambulance bills obtained in unincorporated regions of Flagler County. Instead, county staff will do more research and the item will be brought back to commissioners for discussion sometime in July.
Commissioner Alan Peterson pronounced during the meeting that he was not ready to sign at the dotted line in the piggyback contract alongside officials in Orange County because he first wanted to have knowledge of how the collection agency does its business.
He wanted to know how frequently the agency calls residents about their delinquent accounts and what times of the day those calls were made. He also wished to know how many written notices would be sent to residents in arrears for their emergency medical care during an ambulance ride.
“My overriding concern on this whole issue is that unlike most bills people incur, this is an involuntary expense,” Peterson said. “People don’t normally choose to take an ambulance for medical care.”
Commissioner Barbara Revels said she also wanted to ensure the county wasn’t getting into business with a “heavy-handed” collection agency that could result in consumer backlash, like some that’s now being seen around the country.
Under the county’s current billing routines, insurance companies are billed for a patient who receives medical care and transport. If the patient is not insured or the insurance does not cover the full balance due, a third-party billing company steps in and attempts to collect the debt through written notices with the help of information verification from Tax Collector Suzanne Johnston’s office. The account is kept open and debt collection attempts continue for up to a year, at which time the debt is moved to a “bad debt” list and charged off by commissioners.
The debts are not placed on residents’ credit reports and pugnacious telephone tactics are not used for collection.
Peterson also said if the board decides to move forward in hiring a collection agency, he’d like to see county officials add a new level of regular review to the accounts on its “bad debt” list before they’re turned over for collection.
“There should be a review of each and every account to see if it makes sense to turn it over to the collection agency,” Peterson said.
He requested county staff obtain the proposed collection agency’s procedures and has asked them to present an outline of the policy they will use for reviewing accounts before they’re turned over to the agency sometime before the end of July.
“We haven’t had a collection agency up to this point, so I don’t think it would hurt to delay the decision two weeks,” said County Administrator Craig Coffey.
Mallory works for a debt collection agency. Also, she composes stories on business, finance, and collections. .
Your Small Business Is Not Alone In This Economy
Posted by Mallory Megan in Currency & Finance on March 16th, 2010
You would have to be living in a cave not to be aware that we’re in the worst financial crisis in our lifetimes in the United States. If you find yourself worried about your business and what can happen next, you’re certainly not alone.
As I write this, the next few days bring great uncertainty about what the government is going to do to try and help bail out the failed banking system in the US. While it’s not clear what form the assistance will take, it appears almost certain that the US government will have to do something to fix the mess created in the financial system by rampant greed. What is going to happen? Who knows! What is obvious is that the vast majority of Americans are very unhappy with the situation and quite angry about spending billions of dollars to bail out an industry known for greed.
The fact of the matter is, a bailout is not the end of the troubles for those of us who run small businesses. The United States economy is in deep, deep trouble and this will not be fixed very quickly. All the major news outlets have commentaries about what’s happening and what to expect. It seems the consensus is that it’s unlikely we’re going to experience a level of unemployment seen during the Great Depression. That’s the good news. The bad news is that things are ugly and their likely get much worse before they get better. And if that wasn’t enough, things are probably not to get better in the near future.
Small-business owners are unlikely to be able to get the credit that they need in order to expand their business in the near future. So what can you do? No one can tell you what you need to do in your particular business, but I’ve always been a strong supporter of the low-cost direct marketing style in my businesses. I suggest you start rethinking all the creative ways you can seek out more revenue at a minimum cost. This means not only getting new customers at minimum cost, but equally important, you need to try to sell more services to the customers you already have.
The situation is a lot more complicated than simply not being able to obtain additional credit, it is also going to be difficult for most business owners to even make it through the next several years. There has already been a huge drop in consumer spending in the US. Getting new customers as well as maintaining the ones you already have is going to get very difficult. That is why this is the time to get yourself back to the basic and most important task you have, “Get your business well marketed.” There is nothing more important for your business in tough times such as these than your marketing efforts.
Mallory McGuinness works for a collections agency that works with a debt collection lawyer. She also writes stories on business and finance, consumer spending and collections agencies.
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Record Companies Resort To Different Tactics To Collect Money
Posted by Mallory McGuinness-Hickey in Currency & Finance on January 16th, 2010
It appears as though the music industry has found a new strategy to cash in on royalties. As music lovers are well aware, at first these companies tried to sue individual users for illegally downloading music. But it is painfully clear that this approach to recover from major financial loss has destroyed their image in the public eye.
In lieu of lowering the price of albums in order to go up against the free music circulating through the internet, the music industry has turned to collection agencies who are now taking legal action against cellphone companies over royalties from ring tones. They claimed that ring tones counted as public performances so cell phone companies should be obligated to pay performance fees. The courts quickly renounced this claim.
Despite this unfruitful endeavour to collect on royalties, Broadcast Music Inc is now suing T-Mobile over ring back tones, alleging that the mobile carrier is selling them without licensing agreements. Unlike ring tones, which play publically when someone calls, ring back tones are only heard specifically by the person calling. Instead of hearing a cellphone dialing, the caller will hear a song that was chosen by the cell owner.
Music lovers are quick to point out the contradictory nature of this lawsuit. If ringtones that can be heard by anyone around a cellphone that is being called, do not equate to a public performance, it seems absurd to sue the mobile carriers over a ringback tone that can be heard only by the caller. Record companies seem to be grasping at straws as they suffer from huge financial losses.
It does not seem that lowering the cost of CDs and DVDs is an idea that has occurred to the major companies. There are still a number of music fans out there that prefer to collect and own the media, however with prices constantly spiking, downloading music for free seems very tempting. CDs generally go on sale for about seventeen dollars.
Specific bands have been skirting the issue of music downloading through unique tactics. Radiohead, an alternative rock band, established a website where fans can download the music for free, or for a donation. Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor has followed suit. With record companies’ unsuccessful lawsuits and declining public image, it seems as though thinking outside of the box and fair pricing may be more effective than bullying money out of mobile carriers and individual users.
Mallory McGuinness-Hickey works for debt collection agency Rapid Recovery Solution and writes free lance pieces on financial news.
Negative Entries on Your Credit Report Can Be Challenged
Posted by Ben Casey in Currency & Finance on October 22nd, 2009
Learn How to Challenge Your Equifax Credit Report
Would you like to remove those nagging negative items from your credit report?
In this process, obtaining a copy of your Equifax credit report is tantamount in order that you may review the credit report for any negative information listed. Following is a list of items which will affect your credit negatively:
third party actions
legal proceedings, such as judgments
bankruptcy and included in bankruptcy
foreclosure
repossessions, i.e. auto, boat, or other personal property
wage garnishment
late payments
settled accounts, collection – paid or settled for less
public records
A dispute letter to Equifax is the next step. You should draft a letter which outlines your reason for believing the reported information is inaccurate. Be sure to include your personal information in the letter.
The final step is to wait 30-45 days for the results.
What Happens After I Mail my Dispute Letter?
If Equifax removes the negative entry, don’t stop! Continue to clear up any remaining negative items. Lastly, be sure to clean up any inaccurate personal information, such as addresses and employment information.
When a dispute is resolved in your favor, Equifax will remove the disputed information. On occasion the credit bureau will update an item with newly acquired information which can be good or bad depending upon what the creditor reports to Equifax. For instance, Equifax may update a collection account with the most recent balance owed.
Expect the negative item to remain on your credit report for 7-10 years if you lose your dispute with Equifax. However, don’t lose heart! There are other options available to continue trying to rebuild your credit.
A credit professional is invaluable when a simple dispute is unsuccessful. Negotiating with the creditor, debt validation, or payment for deletion are some methods an attorney might decided to utilize.
It is important to understand that creditors are not required to report credit history to credit bureaus. Only credit bureaus must follow the law requiring the seven year limit. Therefore, an experienced attorney may be able to convince a creditor to remove a negative credit item.
Discover how I raised my credit score from 582 to 745 in four months with the help of Lexington Law. Learn the truth about quickly and effectively deleting bad credit at www.creditforcouples.com.
Facts To Consider When Choosing A Collection Agency
Posted by David P. Montana in Currency & Finance on July 31st, 2009
Once you’ve decided on delegating your delinquent accounts to a collection agency, the next question is how to find the best one. In today’s current economy there are so many different kinds it can be confusing. Following are suggestions for finding the best collection agency to suit your needs.
Collection agencies use two kinds of fee structures. Some of them send you a bill each month, while others take their money out of the funds they recover for you. The latter is clearly preferable, because it doesn’t cost you money upfront and it shows you that they have confidence in their ability to collect. There’s really no reason to pay fees up front to a collection agency when so many of them don’t require it.
Some agencies belong to professional collection associations, while others do not. There are two such groups in the US, the Commercial Law League of America and the American Collectors Association. It’s preferable to hire a member firm for collections because they take their professional standing seriously.
For example, both organizations require perfectly professional conduct from their members. Not only do they conform to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, they are committed to training courses for members to teach the latest collection techniques.
You also want to pick a collection agency that will let you view your accounts online. Though you’re delegating the task to them, you need to be able to keep an eye on things for your peace of mind. An agency that allows you online access to your accounts is preferable to one that does periodic reporting in the mail.
Another thing to ask when you’re interviewing collection agencies is whether or not they make use of private investigation firms or software. Sometimes the hardest part of the collections process is locating the client. It’s absolutely imperative to pick a collections firm that will go the extra mile and hunt the debtor down if the current phone number and address you have for them isn’t working.
Agencies that incorporate private investigative services into their offerings are also preferable. One of the most difficult parts of the collections job is tracking down missing debtors. An agency that incorporates investigations into the services they offer you will cost less and be more efficient than one who has to outsource their investigations or one who doesn’t do investigations at all.
Finally, make sure your collection agency has staff working outside of standard business hours in order to maximize your collections efforts. If you have collections all over the country it’s better to hire an agency with offices nationwide in order to deal with disparate time zones. Even if all of your collections are local, make sure the collection agency has some people who work early and some who work late, because collections calls outside of the 9-5 time frame are usually more successful.
Why Businesses Need National Collection Agencies
Posted by David P. Montana in Currency & Finance on July 25th, 2009
When you’re trying to pick collection consultants to handle debtors for your business, you should seek out national collection agencies. In virtually every instance, national collection agencies just have more to offer for you.
For a collection company to have offices nationwide, they have to have a lot of resources. You may not think that matters when it comes to someone making collection calls for you, but it matters a lot. For example, more than half of the states in the US require collection agencies to be licensed. This process costs time and money.
Using a local collection agency to call people across the country is not a wise decision. Someone in Massachusetts is not likely to be aware of the legal requirements in Oregon. Using a firm that has offices in every state will ensure that your collection people abide by that states’ laws, which is important for your reputation.
National collection agencies also have the money and resources to train their collectors in the latest, most up-to-date collection techniques. Besides repetitive phone calls and demand letters, there are creative solutions to debt collection these days and you want to put your receivables in the hands of someone who will use every weapon at his or her disposal.
Because they are more prestigious, national agencies get the cream of the crop when it comes to collection employees. They are also more likely to impress debtors into paying something. They will realize you mean business when you have a national debt collection firm representing you.
National collection agencies make the effort to hire specialists within each industry as well. Whether it’s medical collections, bank collections or consumer collections, each industry has its own unique concerns and you need a collection agency that will have multiple people skilled in your business’s area.
Another important advantage to nationwide collection agencies is simply time. With more people on their payroll, they’re able to work on collections for more hours in the day. In addition, having a local office in each state eliminates problems with time zones. If you are in California and use a local agency, you will miss out on the best time of day for collections activities for clients on the East Coast.
Finally, national collection agencies, because their offices need to communicate with each other, tend to be more systematic. Their accounts are usually computerized and they often give you online access to your files, so you can keep an eye on what’s going on at all times. You may have handed over your receivables to a collection firm so that you didn’t have to worry about it, but the truth is that you need to monitor their activities periodically in order to make sure things are going well. National collection agencies offer the ability to do just that.
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