We have carefully shortlisted a handful of collection agencies based on our 20 years of experience in the debt collection industry. Simply fill out our Contact Us form, and we will connect you to a cost-effective Collection Agency with extensive experience in your industry.
How much should a Collection Agency Charge?
- Low-cost Collection Letters service should cost between $10 to $18 per account. This is ideal for debts less than six months old. Your Collection Agency should encourage you to use this service, and even offer a recovery rate guarantee for this step.
- Contingency rates for Collection calls and Legal Suit should be no more than 35% to 45%. These services are ideal for accounts over 180 days past due.
- Your collection agency should offer a 5% discount if your volume is high or if the average balance of your accounts is over $2,500.
- They should have a strong network of nationwide lawyers to file a legal suit if all other recovery efforts fail.
Did you have a bad experience with your current Collection Agency?
Have you ever fallen for a debt collection agency claiming to be the cheapest and best and later found out that
- It was not precisely correct.
- They have simply cut a few essential steps of the standard debt collection procedure to make their pricing cheaper than others. In other words, they sold you an inferior product.
- They offered no customer support after you signed the contract. Were your calls forwarded to a call center located in a foreign country that did not speak good enough English? Weren’t you very concerned that your and your debtor’s sensitive data is being shared and handled by non-American staff? Are these debt collectors handling the data of your debtors securely or not?
- Collection services that were demonstrated turned out to be sub-standard and resulted in lower than average recovery rates.
- Your agency did not do a Change of address, Bankruptcy check, and most importantly, the Litigious-debtor check to protect you from potential counter lawsuits.
- Made you buy too many accounts, products, or services, or they came with a 1 or 2-year expiration date?
- You bought cheap service earlier, just to realize hidden fees were attached.
Oh, let’s not stop here.
For the Collection Calls service, we have heard these taglines
* No Recovery – No Fees ( Read it: We are pushing you for Contingency only collections since our collection agency earns most from it. Did they even offer you the low-cost flat-fee Letters Service.)
* Whatever we collect – You keep half and we keep half ( Read it: Contingency fee is 50%. Too high. Anything over 40% is high.)
You get what you pay for!
No collection agency will give you a super cheap package without removing some crucial steps, cutting corners, outsourcing to a foreign country, providing inferior customer support and leaving you more prone to lawsuits.
What to look for to shortlist a Good Collection Agency?
Go for the collection agency that offers superior services for the optimum cost to get maximum returns for your buck. The difference in cost or commissions charged between an inferior collection agency and a full-service collection agency is not more than 10%, but the results are drastically different. Your super low-cost collection agency search can leave you with an inferior debt recovery service.
Collection Agency should definitely offer these services:
- Offer all three scrubs – Change of address, Bankruptcy check and Litigious customer check.
- Should offer full service of 5 collection letters, nothing less.
- Should not put an expiration date on accounts purchased under the collection letters service.
- You should be able to buy accounts in bulk to avail cheaper pricing.
- Should send collection letters in “Colored Print”, and not in plain Black and White. A colored print is known to grab an immediate debtor’s attention more than a boring B/W print.
- Should have all operations located in the USA and/or handled by USA citizens or residents. This includes Customer support, Debt Collection agents, Software development and Call Centers.
- Should offer credit reporting to agencies like Equifax, Transunion or Experian.
- Should offer collection activities in both English and Spanish.
- Should offer an Online Client Portal where you can submit accounts, stop/pause collection activity on an account, report payments and monitor performance.
- Should have a PCI or a SOC 1 security certificate.
- It should be insured, certified and bonded. It should be licensed to collect in all 50 states of USA.
- Should follow all FDCPA collection laws and regularly screen or train their debt collection staff for it.
- Do background checks of their debt collectors before hiring.
A low-cost collection agency is desirable, but it should not offer inferior services.
Contact us if you are looking for a full-service, well-priced collection agency with experience in your industry.