Debt Recovery

Lawn care and landscaping companies regularly have unpaid bills from customers who do not fulfill their promise of making timely payments once the work has been completed. They do not have time to follow up on these unpaid bills effectively.

Lawn care contractors struggle to keep their accounts in “green” because they employ too few resources to manage the business’s administrative side since it is considered a cost center. These past-due accounts quickly become a huge problem, impacting cash flow in this fiercely contested industry.

Contact us if you need a collection agency to recover your unpaid bills.

Landscaping companies face numerous business challenges:

1. Seasonality: This industry is highly seasonal in many regions, with demand peaking in spring and summer. This seasonality can make cash flow management difficult. Companies need to budget effectively to maintain their business operations during the off-season.
2. Labor Issues: Landscaping is labor-intensive work and finding reliable, skilled, and affordable labor is a major challenge. In many areas, there’s also a high turnover rate in the industry, which can lead to increased costs related to hiring and training.
3. Competition: The landscaping industry is highly competitive. It’s fairly easy for someone to start their own business, resulting in an oversaturated market in some areas. Companies have to work hard to differentiate themselves from competitors and attract new customers.
4. Regulations and Compliance: Landscaping companies must comply with various local, state, and federal regulations. These might pertain to pesticide usage, waste disposal, water conservation, and more. Navigating and complying with these regulations can be challenging and costly.
5. Climate Change and Sustainability: As climate change becomes more pressing, many customers demand eco-friendly landscaping solutions. This requires investment in sustainable practices, new equipment, and training.
6. Equipment Costs and Maintenance: Landscaping requires a variety of equipment, which can be expensive to purchase and maintain. This can be particularly challenging for small businesses or startups with limited capital.
7. Technology Integration: The integration of new technologies, like landscaping design software, automated irrigation systems, or project management tools, can be challenging but is increasingly necessary to stay competitive. Some companies may struggle with the cost of these technologies or the learning curve associated with their use.
8. Marketing and Customer Acquisition: With the growing competition, effective marketing is more important than ever. Small businesses in particular, may struggle with creating an effective online presence or leveraging social media to attract customers.
9. Price Pressure: With so much competition, there is often pressure to keep prices low to attract clients. However, low prices can impact profitability if not managed carefully.
10. Health and Safety Risks: The industry often involves physically demanding work, and companies need to manage health and safety risks to protect their employees and avoid potential liability.

Need a Collection Agency?

A professional debt collection agency works as an extended branch of your business. They are experts in debt collection. They will diplomatically approach your clients whose payments are late and employ various tactics to recover money from them. Collection agencies follow the laws of “The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA)”. Their staff knows how to negotiate patiently and handle common debtor excuses. Since lawn care and landscaping companies do not have a good enough system for overdue accounts receivables and unpaid bills, hiring a collection agency becomes mandatory. You must provide a copy of your signed contract to your collection agency if your customer disputes the debt.

Collection Demands Service

The upfront cost for 5 Collection Letters is about $15 per account. Debtors pay directly to you, no other fees. Low cost option. Good for accounts less than 120 days past due.

Collection Calls Service

Contingency fee only. No upfront or additional fees. Agency gets paid a portion of the money they recover.  No recovery-No fees. Best for accounts over 120 days. A debt collector calls debtor many times. If everything fails, a possible Legal Suit is recommended by the attorney.

Check this: Cost of hiring a collection agency

Your options include trying to collect by first sending low-cost “Collection Letters” followed by “Collection Calls” or going for “Collection Calls” directly. Collection agencies are licensed, insured, and bonded. They do various checks to minimize risk for your business and attempt to maintain a good relationship with your clients by using a diplomatic approach to recover money. If requested, they will even report the debt to the Credit Bureaus and may even file a Legal Suit to recover money. For credit bureau reporting SSN or DOB of your customer is needed by law.

The housing market has seen new buyers since 2015. We hope all these new families are generating good revenue for you. While you make the world go greener, a collection agency will work aggressively to keep your accounts receivables healthy and green.

Pest Control is a very competitive industry. The market is huge, but so are the number of pest control companies. Overdue accounts receivable can erode profits for which you have worked so hard. The staff of a pest control company is not well trained to recover money from unpaid bills. Constant followups with defaulters can be a very frustrating activity.

Hiring a collection agency for your accounts receivable will enable you to focus on your business, recover more from past-due accounts and also protect your firm against lawsuits that you may run into.

The staff of collection agencies are well trained to follow the debt collection laws like the “Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA)”. They protect you and your staff from breaking laws while trying to recover your own money. Moreover, most Collection Agencies do a “Litigious Individual” check. That allows them to take a different approach when collecting from these high-risk defaulters who look for excuses to file a counter lawsuit. 

While the exterminators concentrate on eliminating roaches and rodents, the collection agency will eradicate your headaches related to the past due accounts. Collection agencies follow a diplomatic approach for collections. Therefore it is your best chance to protect your brand image without annoying customers.

Collection Letters Service

The upfront cost for 5 Collection Letters is about $15 per account.  Debtors pay directly to you, no other fees. Low cost option.  Good for accounts less than 120 days past due.

Collection Calls Service

Contingency fee only. No upfront or other fees.  Agency gets paid a portion of the money they recover.  No recovery-No fees. Best for accounts over 120 days. A debt collector calls debtor many times. If everything fails, a possible Legal Suit if recommended by the attorney.

Low-cost Collection Demands from Collection agencies is the best-starting step towards recovering your money. Five letters are sent out in about 45 days, starting with softer verbiage in letter one to a firm (yet diplomatic) verbiage in letter five. It indicates the debtor that you are serious about recovering your pending bills. Unpaid bills can be further transferred for “Collection Calls” or the “Legal Suit” service.  

Pest control services which do not want to put money for buying collection letter accounts should definitely go for no-upfront cost Collection Calls service; this service is purely contingency-based and delivers in good recovery rates. 

Check this: Cost of hiring a collection agency

Involvement of a collection agency is a game changer while collecting money. The debtor knows that this matter can not only be reported to Credit Bureaus, damaging his credit history but more importantly, a collection agency will go great lengths to recover the money.

Contact us if you are looking for a collection agency with experience in your industry.

Image Source:
Senior Airman Austin Harvill -commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
Pestering_pests,_Entomology_sprays_down_threats_150323-F-XD389-010.jpg

Vineyard owners regularly face problems with outstanding accounts receivable from clients, contractors, and suppliers. Smooth cash flow is critical for your winery’s ongoing operations and expansion.

Collection agencies classify the debt as “Commercial Debt” or “Consumer Debt“.

Commercial Debt (B2B): The debtor is a business (not an individual). Collection balances are higher, and settlement is attempted so that the business relations of the two parties are not damaged. Before starting the commercial collection process, a collection agency will give you a final fee quotation after studying the complexity of your case. Agency collection fees vary from 15% to as high as 50%.

Consumer Debt (B2C): In this case, the debtor is an individual. Collection agencies can provide cheaper flat fee services in the form of diplomatic “Collection Letters“. A 40% contingency fee is charged if the account is transferred to a “Debt Collector” who makes Collection Calls to your debtor.

From the debt collection point of view, commercial and individual accounts are treated very differently. The federal and state debt collection laws are also drastically different for each of them.

The last resort of collections is to file a Legal Suit.

Top wine-producing regions in US are – Lodi, Napa, Paso Robles, Sonoma Valley, Palisade in California , Snake River Valley in Idaho, Willamette Valley in Oregon, Albuquerque in New Mexico, Finger Lakes, North Fork and Long Island in New York, Fredericksburg in Texas and Leesburg in Virginia

It is recommended that a winery should transfer the debt to a collection agency once it is about 90 days past due. Faster you transfer a past due account to a collection agency, the chances of an amicable settlement are higher.

Do not burden your untrained winery staff with engaging in debt collections. Collection agencies are experts in collecting money. While you focus on the daily running and expansion of your winery, let the collection agency handle your accounts receivable in a legally-complaint manner.

If you need a collections agency to recover money from past due accounts: Contact us

The same is true for beer and spirits producers.

Unpaid tuition fees can cause a lot of financial burden on Daycare Centers, Kindergartens, Preschools, and Child care centers. Many daycare centers attempt switching to a 100% prepaid model, but it generally results in a loss of enrollment as most parents prefer a postpaid model.

After sending several reminders to the parents, an amicable resolution seems impossible. Some daycare centers try taking the matter to a Small Claims court, which requires significant preparation, fees, stress, and time. This time could have been utilized for getting new clients or enhancing your daycare facilities. Even if a daycare center wins the judgment in a small claims court, it does not guarantee payment. Many parents either fall into the low-income bracket category or are experiencing temporary financial problems ( like job loss, medical emergency bills, etc.). Regardless of their situation, a daycare center should attempt to recover their tuition and meal fees, which they rightfully deserve.

In most cases, without the help of a professional collection agency, daycare centers are forced to writing-off these overdue accounts receivable as a complete loss in their accounting books. Collection agencies can recover money diplomatically and amicably while preserving the reputation of your daycare. Taking your unpaid AR seriously will boost the profits of your business.

Need an Experienced Daycare Collection Agency: Contact us

Low-cost Collection Letters offered by collection agencies are an excellent way to collect money from your past-due accounts. There is a massive difference between parents getting an invoice from a child care center versus a collection demand from a debt collection agency. Communication from a collection agency means it is just the beginning of the collection process, and a lot more is still to come. Parents will dig their pockets deeper to get rid of the collection agency, especially when it has to do with their child.

Collection Letters Service

Upfront cost for 5 Collection Letters is about $15 per account. Debtors pay directly to you, no other fees. Low-cost option. Good for accounts less than 120 days past due.

Collection Calls Service

Contingency fee only. No upfront or other fees. Agency gets paid a portion of the money they recover.  No recovery-No fees. Best for accounts over 120 days. A debt collector calls debtor many times. If everything fails, a possible Legal Suit if recommended by the attorney.

Check this: Cost of hiring a collection agency

There are some unbeatable advantages when using a collection agency:

1. Five diplomatic Collection Demands are sent out at an average cost of $15 per account. They also perform scrubs like “USPS Change of Address” and “Bankruptcy” validation at this price. This enables the agency to send letters to the latest address of the parent. If a parent has filed for bankruptcy and they may be exempted from paying debts, including the fee of your child care center.

2. If the amount remains uncollected even after the Collection Letters service,  with your permission, these accounts will be forwarded for Collection calls or to file a Legal Suit to recover your money. These are contingency-based services.

3. Collection agencies allow parents to make payments in installments, online or over the phone. The installments approach facilitates parents of lower-income groups and those having temporary financial issues to make smaller payments.

4. An online portal provided by a good collection agency allows you to submit debts easily and quickly. It is recommended to submit an account for the Collection Letters service after the debt has been 60 to 180 days past due.

5. You should add in your initial “Childcare Center-Parent” contractual agreement that the parent is responsible for all debt collection costs on unpaid bills, not limited to late fees, court fees and the collection agency fees. Even if you do not attempt to recover the amount spent on collections, still a large portion of the money should come back, which otherwise would have been a 100% loss for your daycares.

6. Ask the collection agency if they have a diplomatic and empathetic approach to collections; it helps to maintain your positive reputation. There will always be some parents who will get very upset the moment they get a letter from you or the collection agency, but it does not mean you should write off that debt, fearing an adverse reaction. You have the right to recover your money to help run your own business and improve its cash flow.

7. A collection agency ensures that they comply with collection laws like FDCPA, TCPA, and several state debt collection regulations.

Forwarding a case to the collection agency means you can keep your 100% attention running your Child Care center and let the collection agency experts work as an extension to your business to recover the bad debt.

 Contact us: If you need a collections agency to take care of your unpaid accounts receivable:

Total student loan debt in the USA is more than $1.78 trillion. College grads with loans owe about 37,000 on average. Unlike elementary school debts, which are easier to collect, student loans for engineering, management, and medical courses carry a much larger balance and are much harder to collect.

Diplomacy is essential in the debt recovery process for colleges. Unlike other debts, the probability of recovering student loans improves as people make more money and settle in their careers.

Unlike other loans, student loan obligations do not go away even if the borrower files for bankruptcy. A private student loan is considered in default after three straight months of non-payment. This delinquent debt is usually forwarded to a professional Debt Collection Agency. An experienced collection agency can reduce the dropout rate and even encourage students to re-enroll by explaining how the federal Pell Grant program will likely cover their unpaid fees if they re-enroll.

Collecting money for colleges nationwide Need a Student Loan Collection Agency? Contact Us

A professional debt collector can usually deliver high recovery rates on these accounts.

Student loans are rising, and so are the defaults. It is undoubtedly an unfortunate scenario for students, but even the lenders are taking a big financial hit and, in some cases, are forced to write off these loans completely. Banks and Credit Unions primarily issue private student loans. After the 2008 recession, many lenders cut back on their student loan programs.

A Collection Agency will seek repayment from the borrower and the cosigner (or the guarantor) if required. Education loan collection requires sending collection demands, making several collection calls, and sometimes escalating for legal action. A collection agency must follow many debt collection laws like those specified in the “Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA)”. Upon the lender’s request, a college collection agency may report this debt to the Credit Bureaus, damaging the borrower’s ability to take further loans like mortgages, credit cards etc. 

Check this: Cost of hiring a college debt collection agency

The collection agency fees can be added to the principal amount. All these clauses are defined in the promissory note signed during the initial student loan processing. Some state laws set a lower limit. The borrower is still responsible for any unpaid interest, late fees, and principal, which keeps getting more significant as time passes by.

Higher education is expensive in the United States. It is crucial to involve a Collection Agency ASAP because the amount becomes too big to repay as the interest increases. In such a scenario, the borrower often gives up entirely on repaying the loan, ready to face whatever consequences that may follow.

Even if the lender/collection agency gets a court judgment against the borrower or cosigner for wage garnishment for private student loans, this garnishment can be only up to 25% of disposable pay in most states. With the court order, a lender/collection agency can sometimes seize assets and bank accounts and place liens against property owned by the borrower or cosigner. Laws vary a lot from state to state. Getting a “highly favorable” judgment is understandably hard because the lender, the big guy, is often seen as the bad guy and the borrower is seen as the victim of circumstances.

Furthermore, there is a different approach when collecting medical debt versus non-medical debt. Therefore you cannot just hire any collection agency; you must engage a debt collection agency with extensive experience recovering money from these higher-value student loans.

Collection agencies are experts in collecting debt, including private student loans. They do a far superior job, provided the account is transferred early enough. Another huge disadvantage of waiting for private student loans is that the “Statute of limitations” applies here and could shield the borrower eventually. The statute of limitations does not apply to Federal loans. Courses like Under Grad, Graduation and Post Graduate courses are far more challenging to collect by engaging in-house staff and eventually require the intervention of a professional collection agency.

Startling Statistics 1 in 4 American adults has student debt. Medical Student Loans carry the highest balance. 7 in 10 college graduates are now graduating with student debt The price of a college education has quadrupled since the 1980s, rents have doubled. ( Wages haven’t kept up) 40% of borrowers are expected to be in default by 2023. 3 million Americans over the age of 60 are paying off student debt. Thousands are having Social Security payments garnished. The largest private student lenders in USA are College Ave, CommonBond , Earnest , Navient, Sallie Mae and SoFi.

Reference:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/m-29-old-235k-student-151734965.html

We help fitness clubs and gyms recover a wide range of unpaid bills, including membership dues, personal training sessions, class fees, initiation charges, bounced payment plans, and even unpaid merchandise or facility rentals. Our professional and compliant collection approach delivers strong recovery results while protecting your brand reputation.

Health and Fitness clubs operate in a vibrant ambiance full of energy, motivation, the sound of heavy metal, and grunting.

Although you expect your staff to deal with clients with utmost respect and professionalism, keeping the head cool, especially when dealing with those tough-to-handle clients, is not always easy.

Gyms depend on recurring monthly fees, so when a member cancels, it can impact their expected cash flow.

• Despite having agreed to the cancellation policy at the time of joining, some members still dispute the charges.
• Sometimes the recurring monthly fee gets denied due to card expiration or chargebacks.

The fitness industry often experiences high member turnover. High churn rates make it difficult to maintain steady revenue and can complicate billing processes. Collecting money from unpaid invoices is extremely important for Gyms.

Need a Collection Agency for unpaid membership bills? Contact Us Serving Fitness Centers Nationwide

Most employees collecting membership fees are either back-office accounting clerks or front-desk receptionists making calls during non-rush hours. Engaging an untrained club employee to do debt collections is a huge mistake. He/she has no formal training (or experience) and may easily risk your health club into a lawsuit if certain debt collection laws are violated. Yes, some very stringent Federal and State laws exist around recovering your money.

Let your staff do what they are the best at, handling their core health club responsibilities. Demanding to pay past-due membership bills from a vibrant place like a club can be challenging.  Once your member has not responded to your reminder calls and notices for over 60 days, it’s best to forward that account to a professional debt collection agency. Start with Collection Letters followed by Collection calls if required.

There is a common misconception that once an account is transferred to a debt collection agency, the collector would misbehave with your customer to extract money – Wrong. Collection agencies must follow strict debt collection laws like the “Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA)”, due to which they must deal with all debtors professionally and diplomatically, or the debtor will sue them back. Debt collectors are experts in collecting debts; that is what they do all day long. Collection agencies have numerous tactics and tools to recover money from past due accounts successfully.

A typical collection agency will be able to work on overdue accounts of a fitness club for debt recovery, preferably no more than three years old.

Collection Letters Service

Upfront cost for 5 Collection Letters is about $15 per account. Debtors pay directly to you, no other fees and a low-cost option. Good for accounts less than 120 days past due.

Collection Calls Service

Contingency fee only. No upfront or other fees. Agency gets paid a portion of the money they recover.  No recovery-No fees. Best for accounts over 120 days. A debt collector calls your debtor many times. If everything fails, a possible Legal Suit is recommended by the attorney.

Once an account gets transferred to debt collectors, most health clubs prefer using the “Collection Letters” service initially. This is a lot more “softer” approach to collecting on past due accounts. Collection letters service also takes care of customers who have probably shifted their residence to a new location, but your fitness club still has their old address on file.

Collection agencies perform various scrubs on each account placed, that includes “Change of Address” and “Bankruptcy Check”. Letters by Collection Agencies are carefully crafted for maximum impact, yet they are a low-cost approach to collecting money without ruining the relationship with your members. Members pay directly to the club. The “Collection Letters” cost is only about $15 per account. Up to 5 collection letters are sent out. Your staff can never match this cost. Outsourcing debt collections saves your staff time, paperwork, and all the additional overheads.

Check this: Cost of hiring a collection agency

Before you select a health club collection agency, make sure they have the following:

1. An online portal where accounts can be placed. Collection efforts can be stopped once a member has cleared his bills.

2. Their systems are PCI compliant, which means the information about your members is handled securely in their IT systems.

3. They should be able to send demands in both English and Spanish.

4. You Should be able to report an account to credit reporting agencies like Transunion, Experian and Equifax if you want.

5. Ability to accept payments online or over the phone.

6. Collection letter accounts are usually purchased in a bundle. Like 100 accounts for $15 per account. Check with your agency if your unused accounts have an expiration date or if you can use them forever.

7. Insist that you want to use the diplomatic “collection letters” service for your fitness club bills before a debt collector gets involved.  They are best for accounts that are less than 120 days past due. Check if they offer any guarantee on their collection letters service.

Note: If the staff of a Health Club waits too long to transfer an account to a collection agency, recovery money from that account will only get tougher.