Bad Debt

Small Business Debt Collection Agency

In today’s competitive environment, past due accounts result in a substantial financial drag on any small business. If the issue is not resolved promptly, it can gradually snowball into a huge mess.

It will result in a negative cash flow for your small business.
Restrict the ability of a small business to continue with its normal operations.
Delay in providing salary to own employees on time.
Even hamper the ability to make payments to own suppliers.

Collecting unpaid bills from your customers can be very tricky, especially if you share a long term business relationship with them. Requesting to clear accounts receivable, yet continuing to maintain a business-friendly relationship requires a well thought out diplomatic approach.

Contact us if your own efforts have already been exhausted and now you are looking to hire a good debt Collections Agency.

Soft Approach vs. Firm Approach, which works better?
Simply talk to the point and diplomatically. Keep your conversation short.

Do not try to be extremely soft and personal with the client, only to be taken for granted.

Similarly do not interact too firmly or appear indifferent to their problems, this may irritate the client and they may intentionally delay your payment even further.

Have a well planned in-house strategy for accounts receivable ⚡

1. Has this happened for the first time?

There is a fair amount of possibility that their delay is due to an oversight, glitch or a temporary business circumstance. For example, an officer who issues check could be on leave, a non-serious cash flow crunch that is temporary in nature, or may be the client never received your invoice, or lost it.

Quietly send another “reminder” invoice by “certified” mail, keep a copy for your records. Then make a phone call the day after the client receives your “reminder” invoice. Say something like this .. “Sir, may be you did not get our invoice last time, therefore we have re-sent it.“, then carefully listen to what the client has to say.

Client will likely give you the reason of non-payment, even without you asking for an explanation. If it was simply an oversight, they may simply tell you that the payment will be issued today or tomorrow.

But, if the client appears to be deferring the payment or giving false excuses, take it as a warning sign. Keep this account under watch.

Now, your staff should also be informed in advance to be extremely careful, professional and diplomatic with these clients. Since you have a doubt now regarding their ability to make timely payments in near future, have a strategy to prevent their debt with you ballooning further.

2. Has the client started to repeatedly delay payments?

There is likely a bigger problem brewing at your client side. May be the clients own business is not doing too well. You should find out. Politely ask “Sir, we have been doing business with you for “X” number of years and getting payments was never a matter of a concern earlier, would you mind sharing with us what has changed recently?“.

Apart from requesting payment from your clients, do tell them that your own business is also facing problems because of this non-payment. It could be even as simple as this “Sir, since your payments have been delayed, it has created some cash flow problems for us as well. We run our small business on thin margins. I request you to clear our bills at the earliest“.

Showing your problem will convey that its not just your own eagerness to get paid, but there is a compelling business need behind it.

3. Do you have a better alternative?

Since getting paid for your products or services has become an ongoing problem, start looking out for other business partner / supplier, who does not have a cash flow problem. Doing business with your current client has become too risky, its the right time to cut the cord and minimize your losses.

4. Do you know the real reason behind these non-payments?

May be another client contact will disclose the reason of non-payments. Although you can never be sure if the reason given by your client is true or not. Remember or keep notes of what client says during each call. Be mentally prepared for all kinds of excuses.

5. Show faith in your client. It helps.

Create a good relationship so they will want to pay you first because there may be other parties like you who are also waiting to get paid.

“Sir, we have been doing business together for a while, we have great trust in their organization“. Call it “moral faith” or “moral pressure“, but it really works.

6. Control your anger

Speak less and to the point. Be a good listener. Regardless of the circumstances, never sound harsh, never try to threat your client or lose your temper. If you annoy them, it may delay your payments further. In worst case a threatening language can even result in a counter legal action against you.

7. Give them option to pay in installments

Has it been over 4-6 weeks past the payment due date and the reminder invoices have not worked? Now try giving your client an option to pay in installments. If that fails too then stop taking more stress, matter is beyond your own hands.

That’s it .. now what ? ⛔

Transfer this account for Collections – Don’t waste more time

8. Situation cannot be resolved amicably now.

Client has repeatedly failed to make payment multiple times despite reassurances . He is probably avoiding taking your phone calls, needs more time to clear your payment, has started to unreasonably dispute your services or other excuses.. Time is up.

Let an expert collection agency deal with the situation. Involvement of a Collection Agency is a game changer.

9. Don’t waste time: ( “Really-Really” Important)

If you remain on the sidelines whether to transfer an account to a collection agency or not, the situation will only get worse with time. Approach a collection agency if your payment has been due for over 60 days.

Statistics prove that longer you wait, harder it becomes to recover your money.

Involvement of a professional collection agency automatically puts astronomical pressure on the client. Collection agencies have many tricks and legal ways to collect money which you may not know.

Most commercial collection agencies will not charge you anything till your money is collected. Depending on the amount owed and circumstances, collection agencies charge typically between 30% to 50% of the amount they are able to collect. Fully understand the fee structure before hiring a collection agency.

Cost of hiring a collection agency and information about their services is mentioned here. This includes Collection Letters, Collection Calls, Skip Tracing, Various Scrubs, Legal, Advanced Skip Tracing, Diplomatic Contacts, Credit Checking, Credit Bureau Reporting, and a lot more.

Contact us for your small business debt collection needs.

10. Maintain proper proof of the services/products delivered and communications thereafter.

Keep all invoices, proof of goods or services delivered, and copies of reminder invoices sent by you. Also keep a copy of communications done via email and date/time of phone calls made by you to your client and what they have been telling you. Put all this information in the “Notes” section of your Collection Agency’s debt assignment form.

11. Take legal action.
Depending on your situation your collection agency will advice you if filing a lawsuit is advisable or if they want to try to solve the situation amicably in their own way.

Obviously, there is no guarantee that your business relationship with the client will remain intact, but a step by step approach will increase the chances of resolving things in a nice way.

To minimize Accounts Receivable in the first place:
If your are about to do a large sale on credit then have bank reference or trade check done. For medium sized deals, perform credit checks before you extend credit to customers, it is a small investment with big benefits.

VIDEO:

What is a Debt Collection Agency?

Collection Agency is an organization that attempts to collect money from individuals (or businesses) who have not paid their bills on time. Accounts are typically transferred to them after they have been over 60-90 days past due.

Watch this video:

What kind of a debt can be assigned to a debt collection agency?

1. Unpaid medical bills of a doctor or hospital.
2. Services or products which were sold but were not fully paid.
3. Mortgage debt, credit cards bill or other forms of bank delinquencies.
4. Unpaid phone bills, gym bills or other recurring membership fees.
5. Unpaid installments of car loan, student loan or bank loans.
6. Other interest and penalties.

Overall, you can initiate collection activity for almost any past due account for which you are legally entitled to get paid for and have sufficient proof to back your claim.

Example

Lets assume, you are a ‘dentist’ and your patient agreed to pay for your services in 5 installments. But the patient has stopped paying after the 2nd installment. Your gentle reminders to the patient have not resulted in any success. Would you write off the unpaid amount or would you go after the patient by trying harsher measures? It is advisable to avoid both. Taking intensive measures could even result in counterproductive action against you.

Now you approach a Collection Agency to collect your past due amount from your patient (or say Debtor). Depending on the type of service you select, a Collection agency will attempt to collect the outstanding debt and charge you a fixed fees or the percentage of debt collected. (Read: Services that Collection Agencies offer).

Should I try to collect the debt myself?

Sure, if your staff has time to do a few polite reminder calls or send bills to the debtor, and then time to do the followup for the same, try it out. But be extremely careful, respectful, polite and patient during your communication with the debtor. Most likely you will realize that too many man-hours are being spent and your staff is probably trained adequately to handle these situations.

Collection agencies are not only experts in collecting debt, the moment your debtors gets to know that a professional debt collection agency is involved, they are more inclined to pay off the outstanding debt at the earliest.

Documents to prove you legally own the debt:

There are thousands of collection agencies in United States, big and small, and each have a different way of working and the services they offer. In most cases, the collection agency will not ask you to submit all proof (or paperwork) of the outstanding debt initially, they will ask you to provide that if and when needed. For ex: If the debtor disputes the charges. A collection agency will normally start the collection activity by asking only the basic information like Debtor Name, address, phone, amount due, bill/reference number, date of debt and sometimes debtor’s SSN. At all times you should maintain sufficient proof of the outstanding debt.

Additional information:

As mentioned earlier, collection agencies are experts in collecting debt, that’s what they do all year long. They ensure that the demand notices being send out with maximum impact (collection letters , collection calls or legal notices), and that debt collection laws are followed, it includes “Fair debt collection practices act” specified by each state.

Before a collection agency signs you up as a client or starts accepting your past due accounts for collections, they will ask you to sign a legal agreement (on paper or an online contract). This agreement authorizes them to start collection activity on your behalf. Their agreement also includes important disclaimers and some standard legal stuff.

It is normally advisable to start collection activity after its been over 60 days from the date of debt, or that date when the payment was due. The sooner you submit an account for collections, the chances of recovering your money are significantly higher.

Defaulted debts are often placed on the debtor’s credit history, and usually remain for several years.

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How Debt Collection Agencies work?

Businesses often transfer their accounts receivable to professional Collection Agencies which their own in-house staff is unable to recover. Collection agencies attempt to recover this past due debt from individuals and businesses. Collection Agencies are expert in recovering debt. Their well trained team of debt collectors are able to recover money from even those hard to collect accounts.

Their role in the financial ecosystem is extremely important. Without them a very high percentage of the outstanding debts will never get paid off, leading to heavy losses for the businesses. Of course no Collection Agency will recover money from every account assigned, but thy try really hard.

Watch this Video:

Debt collection agencies are broadly divided into two categories:

1. “Debt Collector” – Agencies which act as a middlemen between the creditor and debtor. They attempt to collect the debt in full. Some agencies operate in one state only while others have nationwide license.
2. “Debt Buyer” -Agencies which buy debt by paying pennies on the dollar and usually agree to settle the debt even when a lower payment is offered.

1. Agencies which act as a middlemen between the creditor and debtor.

When a creditor approaches a collection agency to assist him in collecting past due bills, he is typically offered 3 types of collection services:

a) Collection letters (Fixed Fees) – A collection agency sends 4-6 collection letters to a debtor and typically charges between $10 to $25 upfront per account for this service. They normally do a skip trace on these accounts (to ensure the letters are mailed on the latest address of the debtor or if they are legally prohibited from collecting a debt. For example cases when a debtor has bankruptcy protection or if the debtor has deceased. Collection letters are sent every 10 days or so.

All amounts paid by the debtor goes directly to the creditor, collection agency keeps nothing from this amount. You can add the late fees to the amount due if your contract permits. Creditor must report all payments made to the collection agency so that the collection activity can print the lower outstanding amount on future collection letters or completely stop sending letters in case the amount has been paid in full. This service is usually recommended for debts which are within 60-120 days past due date and gives far superior results than your own in-house collections. You may check our sample debt collection letters to get an idea what the debtor receives from a collection agency.

b) Collection Calls (Keep only a percent collected / Contingency based) – This is where an actual human being (debt collector) picks up the phone and starts making phone calls to the debtor. This is a contingency based collections service and is usually recommended for debts older than 90-120 days or if they are hard to collect. A collection agency would usually not accept an account for collections if the debt is older that 18 or 24 months. They also specify the minimum amount of debt that can be assigned for this service, usually $100 to $200 is the cutoff limit.

With their every day experience, debt collectors are able make a perfect collections call and are able to handle debtor excuses way more professionally and smartly than your employees. Most agencies hire multilingual staff to handle Spanish collections if required.

Whatever amount is collected, the collection agency keeps 33% to 50% cut and passes the remaining money to the creditor. Do not always fall for those ultra low cost collection agencies or just because a collection agency is near you.

c) Attorney/Legal collections (Again, Contingency based) – This is third type of collection service where a debt collection agency’s attorney sends legal notices to the debtor. The attorney may even try to collect amount against the assets of a debtor. This could be debtor’s bank accounts, brokerage account, garnishing wages and even against certain types of real estate that the debtor may own. Collection agency usually takes a cut of around 50% for these kind of cases. These accounts should also be high value debts to justify attorney costs to the collection agency.

Collection fee can sometimes be negotiated with the collection agency in case of commercial/business debt, if the total amount past due is higher than $2,000 per account. This can be even as low as 20% at times if the collection amount is much higher, say above $50,000. This discount completely depends on agency to agency and the amount of effort they plan to put in. In case of individual/consumer debt, there is usually no room for negotiation. The reason is that individual debt is harder to collect and is subjected to more stringent FDCPA rules.

2. Agencies which buy debt by paying pennies on the dollar (Debt Buyers)

Some collection agencies purchase bad debt and pay a small money to the creditor for it, even before the collection activity starts. For example, if the outstanding amount is $1000, a collection agency may pay $50 for it. These accounts generally have no or little collection activity done on them in the past. All amount collected now belongs 100% to the collection agency itself. Depend on the probability of debt recovery, a collection agency may pay slightly more or less to buy these accounts. Accounts are usually settled at a lower price point.

Collection Law Firms
Collection activity is not always done by a collection agency, many lawyers are in this industry as well. In this case a debtor will receive a legal notice or a phone call from a Law office of that attorney directly. If there is a co-signer on the debt, the collection activity can be made on the co-signer as well if recovery efforts on the primary debtor have failed. Collection lawyers will usually agree to take even a single case.

Fair debt collection:
There are “Consumer protection laws” and the “Fair Debt Collection Practices” that all debt collection agencies and lawyers are suppose to follow. Here is the list of all debt collection laws. A fair debt collection agency should be respectful, law abiding and truthful. They should not discriminate people based upon gender, race, age etc. They should not contact you in odd hours, like late evenings to early mornings. They cannot try to threat you by passing statements like “If you do not pay, the police will arrest you“.

If the collection agency determines that the debtor cannot pay the debt in full, they can settle an account for a slightly lesser payment if the creditor allows to do so. A debt collection agency may also allow the debt to be paid in monthly installments. There are also some statute of limitations when a collection agency is not allowed to collect a debt. For example many states U.S.A. have a rule that a debt older than 3 to 10 years cannot be collected upon.

Credit History
Non-payment of debt can be reported to credit bureaus ( Transunion, Experian and Equifax) by the collection agency. This type of record on debtor’s credit history report can be quite damaging, because chances of getting new loan goes down for the years to come.

Importance of collection agencies
Due to the nature of their business, debt collection companies have a bad reputation. FTC gets highest number of complaints from this industry. But see the flip side, there are thousands of collection agencies in USA, giving employment to hundreds of thousands of individuals. They also help many other businesses to avoid going out of business due to unpaid bills, saving those jobs as well.

Do read our article about how to improve cash flow for your business and minimizing accounts receivables. While you outsource all those problems in debt collection to a 3rd party collection agency, you can focus on more important things like expanding your business or serving your clients.

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