Our Collection Philosophy

Every debtor should pay every account in full. That is our philosophy. We realize, however, that is not going to happen. Nevertheless, we approach each account as though it is 100% collectable. This is one reason why we are so successful. We also realize, as mentioned before, we are not the most popular people in the neighborhood. In fact, we know that people intentionally ignore our calls and letters, and deliberately try to avoid all contact with our company. We do not let it discourage us because we have the skills and tools necessary to collect from people even if they do not want to talk to us.

So what happens when we make that first contact with a debtor? Well, we keep it simple. We start by introducing ourselves. We explain who we are and why we are calling. We give them our required legal disclaimers, and tell them how much they owe and who they owe. Then we say, "We're calling to determine your intentions on this account." Then we wait...

This approach puts the debtor in a unique situation. Most collection agencies do not ask the debtor what their intentions are. We take this approach because it finally puts the debtor on the spot and makes him decide what he intends to do about the bill. This is an important psychological point in the debtor's path of non-payment. The fact that he must actually verbalize his intentions gives us a huge advantage. Therefore, we wait. When he finally tells us what his intentions are, we know which direction we should take on that account. It is a much more effective way of collecting.

Now, most of the time a debtor tells us that they do in fact want to pay their account but they have a reason or two for not paying. This is when we use our expertise in problem solving and help the debtor figure out what they need to do to pay the account.

However, sometimes, a debtor does not really have an excuse for not paying, and they do not agree to pay. They give us the same excuses they gave you for not paying. We do not allow this. We know that our clients hired us to collect the bill so if a debtor doesn't make a firm commitment to pay their account, we tell them in a professional manner, that our next step will be to recommend legal action to our client (if appropriate of course). We have found over the years that unless we take legal action many people will never pay. In addition, the fact that we take people to court when needed is one of the reasons our recovery rate is more than double the national average!

So that is our philosophy on collecting from a debtor, but what happens if we cannot get the debtor on the phone? What do we do? Well, as it turns out, most debtors never respond to our letters or calls. When this happens and they refuse to speak with us, we simply call a relative, friend, neighbor, or their property owner. We then verify that the debtor still lives at the address we have for them, and that they still have a job. If we can verify these two things, we will recommend legal action to our client to collect the account. It does not really matter if the debtor avoids us, they will still end up paying their bill once the legal action has started. Our willingness to take the appropriate legal action, when necessary, allows us to stand out from the competition and provide you with more than double the return on your accounts!

As you can see, we have a very firm belief that if someone refuses to pay, or has the ability to pay but does not, then legal action is the best option. You might be asking yourself, "How can they feel comfortable with this approach in today's litigious society? Are they worried about being sued themselves?" We would have to answer with, "No, we are not." It all has to do with how we run our business on a daily basis. We are meticulous about being the best. We pride ourselves in striving to be the most professional collection agency in the country. We only hire the best people, and we continually invest thousands of dollars a year in training and re-training them. We are constantly investing in top of the line hardware and software so that we have the most advanced tools to do the job. Moreover, we never compromise our values. We are 100% honest in everything we do and we always choose the higher road. These factors allow us to take legal action on accounts when necessary and feel confident that it is the right decision and we will collect more money because of it.