In recent news it was revealed that powerful prosecutors in Louisiana and Washington made announcements of actions they had obtained against debt collection agencies and their owners and managers.
Bankruptcies can cling on your credit report for up to 10 years and can destroy your credit score by hundreds of points. But by fallowing these methods, you could raise your credit score and become creditworthy several years before the bankruptcy drops off your credit report.
No matter what your business is or what its size is, at some point or another debt collection will become an issue for you. Following are the basics of debt collection so you can find out what you need to know in order to decide whether to handle it yourself or if you need a collection agency to help you.
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.
Discover Financial Services, facing the need for additional funding while revenues are declining and credit card charge offs are growing, received only a lukewarm response from the equity market as a public offering last week of its common shares had to be priced at a 12 percent discount to the market.
Hiring commercial collection agencies is a must in the current economy, when the default option for a lot of clients seems to be to drag out the payment process for as long as they can. If you’ve done the basic research you’ll know that commercial collection agencies are more cost-effective than doing collections in house because they usually cost nothing up front and retrieve more receivables in a shorter amount of time.
Increasing numbers of patients that are not able to pay their medical bills due to the economic decline will be the greatest challenge to hospitals going forward, according to more than half (54%) of those acknowledging a survey conducted this month by MedAssist.
If you’re aspiring to cut setbacks in your small business to try and improve cash flow, then chances are you haven’t even entertained the idea about employing a third party debt collection agency. After all, if you’re attempting to cut back costs do you really need another expense? The trouble with many small business owners is that they have their thinking turned the wrong way around.
Commissioners on Monday postponed a decision to hire a collection agency because of unsettled ambulance bills acquired in unincorporated districts of Flagler County. Instead, county staff will do more research and the item will be returned to commissioners for review sometime in July.
iVolution Medical Systems, a West Hampton, NY-based health care systems firm, is taking a different approach. The four-year-old company, started by former Wall Street consultants to the health care industry, entered the medical receivables space by acquiring experienced billing and collections companies. First there was Professional Health care Billing Services (PHB) of Palm Springs, California in March, and then Continental Collection Services of New York, earlier this month (iVolution Medical Systems Acquires Continental Collection Services, May 13).