What To Search For When Looking To Hire A Collection Agency

When trying to search for a Business Collection agency, it is imperative for companies to find a collection agency that services their specific needs. Some companies may rely on collection firms more than others. For example, a self-employed graphic designer might only need to use a Collection agency’s services once during his or her entire career. However, a bigger company, such as a credit card company, may require the services of a Collection agency more habitually.

There are a few things that institutions should look for when selecting the right Business Collection agency. These include:

Price. Not all Collection firms will charge the same rate or the same way. The Majority Of Collection agencies do, however, set their rates derived from a percentage of the total amount of the monies to be collected. For example, a collection firm might charge 10% of the total collection amount to the business that commissions it. Some collection agencies charge on a contingency basis, meaning they only charge once funds have been collected, while others can charge a upfront fee for their services.

Reliability. Not all Collection agencies are identical when it comes to reliability and effectiveness. One of the most fitting ways to decide how trustworthy a Collection agency is likely to be is to carry out a simple background check on the agency using Internet searching tools or search with the Better Business Bureau. Also, many Collection agencies will offer references or have a list of clients that they have provided services for that new clients may check before hiring the agency.

Contracts. Some Collection businesses offer contract work or a retainer for their clients. In such a case, the agency may work a defined number of hours each month for a set fee. Enterprise’s need to be sure that they require a Collection agency’s services before they sign a long-term contract or retainer contract so that they can be sure that they get what they pay for.

Methods. It is important to ensure that a Collection agency is able to use a variety of methods when contacting non-payees. For example, Collection agencies should not only be able to approach a non-payee diplomatically through letter writing and phone calls, but the Collection agency should also be able to use legal courses of action, if necessary. May Collection agencies are part of law firms, which enables them to file legal cases easily and quickly, if necessary.

Rapid Recovery Solution is a medical collection agency.

How To Eliminate Debt

Three steps to freedom form debt:

1. Stop acquiring new debt.

2. Establish an emergency fund.

3. Implement a debt snowball.

Here’s how to approach each step.

Stop acquiring new debt (This step can be accomplished in a minute.)

This may seem obvious, but the reason your debt is out of control is because you keep spending. Stop using credit. Don’t finance anything. Cut up your credit cards.

That last part may be tough. Don’t make excuses. I don’t care that some personal finance sites say that you shouldn’t cut them up. Destroy them. Stop rationalizing that you need credit cards.

* You don’t need credit cards for a safety net. * You don’t need credit cards for convenience. * You don’t need credit cards for sky miles.

You really don’t need credit cards at all. Credit cards are like quick sand, the more your struggle, the deeper in debt you go. Later, when your debts are gone and your finances are under control, maybe then you can get a credit card. (I don’t carry a personal credit card. I don’t miss having one.)

After you cut up your cards, stop all recurring payments. If you have a gym membership, cancel it. If you automatically renew your online video game account, cancel it. Cancel anything that automatically charges your credit card. Stop using credit.

Once you’ve done this, call each credit card company in turn. Do not cancel your credit cards (except for those with a zero balance). Instead, ask for a better deal. Find an offer online and use it as a bargaining wedge. Your bank may not agree to match competing offers, but it probably will. It never hurts to ask.

Establish an emergency fund (This step will probably take several months.)

For most, this is counter-intuitive. Why save before paying off debt? Because if you don’t save first, you’re not going to be able to cope with unexpected expenses. Do not tell yourself that you can keep a credit card for emergencies. Destroy your credit cards; save cash for emergencies.

How much should you save? Ideally, you’d save $1,000 to start. (College students may be able to get by with $500.) This money is for emergencies only. It is not for beer. It is not for shoes. It is not for a Playstation 3. It is to be used when your car dies, or when you break your arm in a touch football game.

Keep this money liquid, but not immediately accessible. Don’t tie your emergency fund to a debit card. Don’t sabotage your efforts by making it easy to spend the money on crap. Consider opening a savings account at an online bank like ING or e-trade. When an emergency arises, you can easily transfer the money to your regular checking account. It’ll be there when you need it, but you won’t be able to spend it spontaneously.

Implement a debt snowball (This step may require several years.)

After you’ve finally stopped using credit, and after you’ve saved an emergency fund, then attack your existing debt. Attack it hard. Throw everything you can at it.

Some experts say to pay your highest interest debts first. There’s no question that this makes the most sense mathematically. But if money were all about math, you wouldn’t have debt in the first place. Money is as much about emotion and psychology as it is about math.

There are at least two approaches to debt elimination. Psychologically, using a debt snowball offers big payoffs, payoffs that can spur you to further debt reduction. Here’s the short version:

1. Order your debts from lowest balance to highest balance. 2. Designate a certain amount of money to pay toward debts each month. 3. Pay the minimum payment on all debts except for the one with the lowest balance. 4. Throw every other penny at the debt with the lowest balance. 5. When that debt is gone, do not alter the monthly amount used to pay debts, but throw all you can at the debt with the next-lowest balance.

I’m a huge fan of the debt snowball. It still takes time to pay off your debts, but you can see results almost immediately.

Supplementary solutions

You can do other things to improve your money situation while you’re working on these three steps.

First, focus on the fundamental personal finance equation: to pay off debt, or to save money, or to accumulate wealth, you must spend less than you earn.

Curb your spending. Re-learn frugal habits. (Frugality is something with which most college students are all too familiar.) You can find some great ideas on the internet. Also check Frugal for Life.

While you work on spending less, do what you can to increase your income. If possible, sell some of the crap you bought when you got into debt. Get an extra job. (But don’t neglect your studies for the sake of earning more. Your studies are most important.)

Finally, go to your local public library and borrow Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover. Don’t be put off by the title – this is a fantastic guide to getting out of debt and developing good money habits. I rave about it often, but that’s because it has done so much to help my own personal finances. After you’ve finished, return it and borrow another book about money.

The most important thing is to start now. Don’t start tomorrow. Don’t start next week. Start tackling your debt now. Your older self will thank you.

Rapid Recovery Solution is a credit debt collection company. Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service

Statute Of Limitations On Debt Collection

Statute of Limitations on Debt Collection is the amount of time that lenders have to collect their debts by suing you in court and by other legal methods. Once the statute of limitations period is over, the lenders cannot sue you in court. However, the debt that you owe STILL REMAINS. Do not think that once the statute of limitations period is over, your debt will disappear. It will not! Lenders can collect their debts owed via other legal methods like a debt collection company.

We should point out that there are NO Statute of Limitations on the following types of debt owed: Child support due payments, Federal & Local state taxes, Parking fines, illegal fines & Federal Student Loans.

Each US Statute has its own statute of limitations periods. Generally speaking, here is the statute of limitations on the following types of debt: Auto Loans: Debt owed on auto loans generally expires in 6 years. Unsecured Debt: 3-6 years after the last missed payment by a consumer, or last tracked activity.

The moment you sign that debt agreement, for example a car lease document, a personal loan or other types of loans, the Statute of Limitations period begins. However, this rule varies state by state. Some states also allow the ‘adjustment” of this period. For example, a person living in Alabama has credit card debt of $33000 and does not make a single payment for 3 years. Now in the state of Alabama, the statute of Limitations period is 6 years. If that person travels out of the state of Alabama (say to Mississippi) for 1 year, then his statute of limitations period STOPS up until he returns back to Alabama from Mississippi. Upon his return to Alabama, this period resumes again (3 more years).

Also note that after 3 years of having not made a single payment on your debt, you start making payments again. This new payment automatically resets the statute of limitations period to 0.

We will now abbreviate the word statute of limitations as SoL. Consider another example:

You sign an auto financing contract on February 2nd, 2005 where the first payment of $300 is due on March 2nd, 2005. In March, you never make a payment towards your debt. The SoL expires on March 2nd, 2011 (assuming you live in Alabama where the SoL period is 6 years). Why March 2nd? This is because March 2nd was the last time you made a delinquent payment on your loan, or this was your last missed payment. The SoL period starts counting from your last missed payment.

Now assume you get a call from a debt collection company and instead of paying $300/month, they say you can pay just $150/month. You receive this call on August 31, 2008 (2 years have expired on the SoL period). This offer sounds pretty good to you and you indeed do make the payment! Hey! The SoL period at this point automatically resets to 0 and will run for another 6 years!

To recap, every single payment you make towards credit card or personal loan debt resets the SoL clock. This resetting of the SoL clock applies only to unsecured debt and NOT secured debt. This is because in Secured Debt, the lender will simply confiscate your collateral (a pledged home, your car, etc) and will not have to deal with collection issues.

If your lender demands payment from you after the SoL period of collecting the debts is legally over, you will not have to go to court. The court will probably call off the case as soon as the Judge finds out that the SoL period is over. You should write up an “Expired Statute of Limitations” letter to your creditor and inform him that the SoL period is over.

Many people confuse the Statute of Limitations Period of Debt Collection with the SoL period for Credit Reporting. For instance, consider you live in Arizona where the statute of limitations period is 3 years. After 4 years, you can defiantly refuse to pay that debt and the court will rule in your favor. However, according to the rules defined in the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), your delinquent debt will be shown for up to 7 years (since your last delinquent or missed annuity payment).

Rapid Recovery Solution is a medical debt collection agency. Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service

Bankruptcy And Debt Relief

With consumer debt at an all time high, owing money can seem overwhelming. Many people have looked into the internet and have seen advertisements touting debt relief as a quick fix. Enticing as these ads may seem, it is important to be on the lookout for the validity of the claim.

Many of these promise a quick fix, but that quick fix may be bankruptcy. Yes, bankruptcy is one way to address your financial issues, but in most cases it should be a last resort. The fact that you claim bankruptcy stays on your credit report for ten years which means that your chances of getting credit, jobs, a place to live or insurance are significantly lowered.

It’s a good idea to think about other alternatives before claiming bankruptcy. Have a talk with your creditors. Sometimes a re-payment plan can be worked out that is modified or can be paid in installments. Credit counseling services can work with you and your creditors to make debt repayment plans.

When you are considering a second mortgage, be careful. These loans require your home as collateral. Bankruptcy can stop foreclosures, debt collection activities and it may get rid of unsecured debts. Exemptions are provided that let you keep certain assets. However, personal bankruptcy does not usually take away child support, fines, taxes, alimony and in a few cases student loans.

It will not usually let you keep your property if your creditor has a security lien or mortgage that has not been paid. A relatively recent change in bankruptcy laws creates certain tasks that you must complete before you can even file for bankruptcy, no matter what type of bankruptcy. First, you have to get credit counseling from an organization approved by the government within six months before filling.

Also in some cases you must pass a test that requires you to confirm that your income doesn’t exceed a certain amount.

Mallory Megan works for a debt collection company. Also she composes stories on business, finance, consumer spending and collection agencies.

Fabricated IRS Email Scam

Tax season has come and so have the cyber crooks. IRS ploys are circulating, the latest one involving a legitimate looking email from the IRS that states that you can get your tax refund on a Visa or a Mastercard. It asks for your credit card number, your social security number, credit card expiration dates, card verification value numbers, amount shown on your tax return, filing status and other personal data.

An example of the phishing email can be found on the IRS web site.

“After the last year’s calculations of your fiscal activity we’ve determined that you’re eligible to receive a tax refund of $78.87. Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 6-9 days to process it. Access the form for your tax refund by clicking here. – Regards, Internal Revenue Service.”

The IRS does not notify taxpayers of refunds, or any other payments that may be due, by email. Rather than click on the link in the message, you should forward the email to phishing@irs.gov, and erase the original from your email account.

IRS schemes work one of two ways: scammers send unsolicited e-mails that seem to come from the IRS and tell recipients that they have refunds that are due. But first they need to click on e-mail links and provide needed information, which they will use to steal a victims identity.

The second version is an email that pretends to be from the IRS Criminal Investigation Division telling the recipient that they are under investigation for false tax returns. To learn more about the complaints against them, consumers click on the links which hold Trojan horse codes.

These codes take over computer hard drives and allow con-men to remotely access the computers and use them to send spam email among other things. If you ever do receive unsolicited emails from the IRS, they urge you to forward them the email.

Mallory Megan works for a debt collection agency. Also she composes articles on business, finance, consumer spending and collection agencies. Don’t reprint this exact article. Instead, reprint a free unique content version of this same article.

How Do I Know If My Medical Accounts Are Collecting Dust?

Do you know how much debt your medical collection agency collected last year? If you don’t, how can you evaluate their effectiveness or your return? How could you possibly be aware?

Although patient balances forwarded to a medical collection agency are often considered “lost causes,” there would be little point in using such services if that were always the case. Logic dictates this much. Some of the reasons are as follows: Some patients simply do not respond to practice statements or internal collection letters. They will, however, respond when a collection agency states it will report their failure to pay to credit bureaus. Collection agencies have a number of resources on their hands. If reporting a debt to a credit bureau does not work, there are attorneys on hand that can assist you with problem consumers who refuse to pay.

It is common knowledge that most medical practices acknowledge the need for collection agency services but they should evaluate and manage this collection method just like any other. Practices should have a full understanding of the terms of the agreement with their collection agency and the results of such arrangements; they must also understand how their own internal processes affect the agency’s success. And internal processes do have an enormous effect on the amount of money that you can collect.

Here are six questions you should ask when evaluating your current collection agency.

What is the total dollar value of accounts placed with the collection agency last year?

What is the protocol for turning accounts to collection?

What is the average age of transferred accounts?

What percentage of transferred accounts had balances less than $50?

How much did the agency collect last year?

What fees does the collection agency charge?

What reports does the agency provide?

Mallory Megan works for a collections agency that works with a debt collection lawyer. She also writes stories on business, finance, the credit industry and collections agencies. Don’t reprint this exact article. Instead, reprint a free unique content version of this same article.

Know Your Customer: Good Business Tips

Running a business can be hard. A lot of the time it is necessary to hire a debt collection agency for help collecting money that is owed. However, if companies take a position of prevention, they may not require using the assistance of a third party collections agency. Knowing the client or customer can be extremely useful for filtering out potential problems.

First, a business should determine the full legal name of the customer that it plans to do business with. Find out the type of business structure. Is it a corporation or a partnership? The names, addresses and titles of the principal members should be collected.

It is key to find out the federal employer tax identification number. The telephone number, ship to address, name, fax number and email address of the main contact should be established as well. Also, the bill to address, fax number and telephone number of the accounts payable contact is a useful piece of information to know. Individuals authorized to submit orders should be listed.

Inquire about the bank references. What is the name of the bank? The branch address, fax and telephone numbers, account types, account numbers and dates opened can be useful information. The name of the bank representative should be collected also.

Finally, the terms and conditions of sale should be acknowledged and accepted by the client\’s signature. The customer\’s signature, printed name, date of signing and title should be collected, and always have the company\’s lawyer look over any documents before use.

Be aware of the customer\’s credit history and keep decent communication through phone calls or personal visits. Keep an up to date delivery of goods and services, and up to date records and accounts receivable information. Mail out memos and letters to remind the client about the money owed and keep them up to date.

Join an industry credit group and participate actively. It is crucial to know the laws in the state that the company is in regarding collections and business proposals. To protect the company, it is crucial to collect references. Bank references, including the bank name, branch, account type, account number and trade references are important to know. Collect three trade references at least that include the name, address, telephone number and email addresses.

Mallory McGuinness is employed by a debt collection company. Also she writes stories about finance and business, consumer spending and debt collection.