What Do Collection Agencies Do

What do collection agencies do you ask? The first thing once you receive a call from a collection agency your heart is beating harder and your mind is racing. You may even realize you are behind or haven’t paid your bill but you were still dreading the phone call. No need to be nervous you just need to understand the process and how you can reconcile it.

Keep in mind the collection agency ‘s end results is a paid invoice for their client. They want to work with you. They realize life happens and you probably didn’t intend for this to be turned to collections.

How Debt Collectors Work:

There are several ways Collection agencies operate. Some operate in-house and someone from the company would be contacting you or they could be using a third party. That would typically be an outsourced collection company or an attorney. They generally would not contact you until you are 60 days past due.

They typically keep 25% – 45% of the recovered debt. They recover for numerous types of industries such as medical, credit card, vehicle and home loans, unpaid utilities for just a few.

Collection agencies usually each have their own specialties. They may have a minimum they will engage in collecting or it could be strictly location. They all know the statute of limitation in their state.

Depending on the situation they have authority to negotiate settlements. They can also include an attorney to mediate in case it would go to court.

Collection Agencies that purchase debt

When the collection agency determines it isn’t going to be able to collect. It will cut its loss. At that time the debt will typically be sold to a debt buyer. Many times, the debt buyer will purchase these in a package of bad debts and they typically pay 4 cents on a $1. The older the debt the less they pay.

What Debt Collectors Do

Collectors will contact you by letter, phone call or both. Their job is to convince the debtor they need to settle what they owe and as soon as possible. It is in the best interest of the collection agency to collect as the majority of them do not get paid until they collect. Not settling this debt can impact your credit score dramatically.

Bottom line:

You want to work with the collection agency and settle your debt as quickly as possible.

MCA is a third party debt collection agency that has been in constant business since 1950. We are rated A+ with the Better Business Bureau and we pride ourselves on excellent customer service along with delivering great recovery rates. There is no cost to you unless we collect! Why not try and re-coop some of your past due accounts with no out of pocket expense?