When you are hiring a debt collection service for the first time, it is completely understandable how overwhelming and crucial decision it can be for you. Being in the position of the business owner is never easy. You have to take care of a lot of responsibilities which includes all the business dealings, finances, production, recruitment, streamlining the operations, management and so on. While taking care of all these immediate responsibilities, it becomes really difficult for you to keep a track which of the invoices is waiting for payment for a long time. And when this pile of unpaid invoices becomes too large to ignore, it starts affecting the cash flow in your organization.
In such a situation, an agency for commercial debt collection agency comes to your rescue. Hiring a new staff for just debt collection can feel like a waste of the money. Also, for the complicated nature of the process, you have to invest in the resources too. Hence, it is a better decision to outsource the task to a team or organization that has specialized on it, and has in-house experts to handle situations accordingly. Now, since this is the first time you are going to such an organization, it is obvious that the whole concept is not really clear to you. That is why here, I have broken down the whole process in simpler steps for your ease of understanding. Take a look at the following points to know more.
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Right Time of Placing Account
To the contrary of what you believe, you really don’t have all the time in the world to place the account. Within 6 years of delinquency, you must reach out to a team for commercial collection. In fact, statistics show that the faster you place the account, the faster your chances are for recovering the money. Hence, the moment you get the idea that the debtor is ignoring all your efforts of recovery, reach out to the professional collectors.
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Notifying the Patient
Once you place the account to the agency, the patient or the debtor will get a formal notice within 48 hours to initiate the process of recovery. Be rest assured, a reputed agency will effectively comply by the standards of Fair Debt Collection Practice Act so that you don’t have to worry of legal issues.
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Personal Communication
For the next step, the agency will go for personal communication in terms of the phone call, SMS and mail. This will be documented as the proof of the progression of the process of debt collection too so that it can be referred to in the future, if necessary. However, the agency will strictly adhere to the Regulation F enforced by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and try communicating by staying within the legal threshold.
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Payment Plans
On your behalf, the team from the agency will reach the debtor and try to settle for a payment plan. Here, with the agreement of the debtor, and the concerned agency, a payment plan will be chalked out. In case of failure, the debtor will be followed up by the officials again.
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Litigation
If the debtor deliberately refuses to pay the money or ignore all kinds of correspondence from the agency you are hiring or even becomes untraceable, the agency is legally allowed to file the litigation. Here, they will prepare all the documents of all the stages they have followed since now for the recovery so that it can help you in court. A reputed debt collection agency can help you in contacting a lawyer too.
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Reporting to Credit Bureau
After around 90 days of non-payment, an agency will report the case to the credit bureau so that it can get updated in the reports of all the major credit agencies. This is an effective way to make the debtor pay quickly as anyone will be scared of the bad credit report, and poor credit scores that will prevent them from getting a loan in the future.
So, now as you know about these steps, I am sure you have a clear concept of what you are getting into. Forget your worries and trust a reputed agency to get your money back.
Summary
Are you hiring a debt collection agency for the first time and wondering how they will recover the money? Read the blog to know more.