How To Choose Between A National And International Collection Agency

If you are a business owner or departmental manager who has already made the decision to hire a collection agency, you may be wondering what the advantages are to an international collection agency versus a national one. The truth is that any owner or manager with receivables outside of North America has good reason to hire an international collection agency. The same is also true for foreign companies with debtors in the United States or other countries. Following are some of their benefits.

As you probably know, a debt collection agency in general has much higher success rates at recovering debt. In addition, taking your staff off of activities that build business like sales or marketing in order to do debt collection is a poor idea and doesn’t work well. Collections activities that are assigned to salespeople or accounting staff are usually last on the list of things they want to get done.

An international collection agency will be even more suited to solve your international collection problems because they will have familiarity with thorny issues such as local laws, time differences, customs and language barriers. International collections are even more complicated than regular collections and should be handled by professionals.

An international collection agency should be called in right away so the debt can be promptly recovered in a professional manner. You’ll get more money back more quickly this way. In addition, you don’t have to pay up front for the services so it won’t affect your cash flow, and you won’t give your own staff the impossible task of dealing with unfamiliar languages, culture, and laws in an inconvenient time zone.

An international collection agency is more suited to these activities than an ordinary local one because a local collection agency will be hardly better suited to handle these issues than you yourself are. An international collection agency will employ people who speak the local languages and understand local customs. They will also operate during the best hours for collections calls, as opposed to people who live halfway across the world. In addition, they’ll be cognizant of local laws in a way you just can’t do from another country.

A local agency that claims to have expertise in a particular area may hire people who speak the local language, but if they’re located in the US they won’t know dialect or customs of people on another continent. People who are real locals will be much better able to deal with any collections issues that come up.

An international collection agency can also maximize your profits due to working exchange rates. If the currency in the area in which they collect is strong, they can work a deal with the debtor where the amount on the debt paid off is lower in the local currency, but you get more thanks to the vagaries of exchange rates.

Important Facts About First Party Collections

If you’re a business owner or departmental manager who does any kind of collections activities, you’re already pursuing first party collections, though you may not have known it. First party collections means precisely that: attempting to collect on debt for your own company instead of sending your accounts to a third party agency. Any time you make a call asking to remit payment or send a past due notice you’re engaging in the practice of first party collections.

You’re considered the “first party” because you were involved in the original transaction, while the debtor is known as the “second party.” A “third party” doesn’t enter into it unless you hire a separate debt collection agency.

Third party collections are different from first party collections in a few ways. For one thing, there’s a lag in time from when a bill becomes past due to when a third party collector starts collecting, simply due to the exchange of files. Another difference is that third party collectors don’t have a personal relationship with the debtors, so they may not be cognizant of the need to remain on pleasant terms with them in the hopes of getting future business.

First party collections attempts are often seen as friendlier or more understanding than activity from third party collections agencies. Your client may rely on your service or product for his business to run, and if so he will be just as amenable to staying on good terms as you are.

Another advantage first party collections has is one that surprises most people-under first party collections you are not subject to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Whether you’re the original lender or a subsidiary of it (some large companies operate their own collections agencies as subsidiaries for just this reason), you’re not considered a collector by law, which adds some flexibility to your debt collection. However, you must still abide by applicable state and federal laws.

Once a bill gets past due beyond 2-3 months, though, it’s usually time to turn it over to a third party agency or sell the debt. The ability to collect on past due amounts drops steeply after this time statistically, so rather than continuing collections actions in vain, you’re better off handing them over to professionals with more resources.

The most successful first party collections are done by dedicated collections professionals. Salespeople, accounting staff and business owners just aren’t as capable at collections because their attentions are scattered and collections is one of the least pleasant tasks they have to do.

Instead, if you’re insistent on first party collections, hire someone whose sole job is to do that, or if you’re large enough to support it, consider having a collections department or subsidiary. Dedicated collections professionals will know the best collection techniques, including how to find deadbeats, negotiating settlements or payment plans, and even disguising collections activity as audits. First party collections can be effective if you structure it the way a third party agency would.

Things Your Business Needs To Know When Hiring A Collection Agency

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.

The next question for a collection agency you want to hire is whether or not they will allow you to access your accounts online. Even though you’re delegating collections to them, you want to be able to check your files to see how things are going at any time. A truly professional agency will understand this need and take care of it for you rather than making you rely on monthly reports.

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.

The final thing you should check on when hiring a collection agency is what their business hours are. This may seem like a small thing but with national collections, time zones can be a problem, and with local collections, you still want people working outside of normal business hours. Consumer debtors are more likely to answer the phone before 9 am or after 5 pm, because they’re more likely to be home, and also because they believe collections calls are less likely at those times. A collection agency which spreads out its work hours is beneficial to you.