Collections agents contact debtors on behalf of clients, following legal protocol and creating urgency for payment. They send letters and make phone calls, keeping debt confidential. They aim to agree on a payment schedule, but cannot make threats. The job has a high turnover rate due to stress.
A collections agent works at a collections agency that contacts debtors on behalf of their clients. Collection agency careers focus on following legal protocol for debt collection while creating a sense of urgency for debtors to start paying their overdue bills. A collections agent spends most of his business day phoning debtors and sending letters to debtors.
Collection agents send letters to debtors. These letters usually emphasize the urgency of the debtor paying a certain amount within a specified number of days. The letters end by asking the debtor to call the collection agent to make payment arrangements as soon as possible. When collection letters are mailed, it is common for the outer envelope to be very limited in your return address and other information. The law requires collection agencies not to mention anything about the debt on envelopes sent to debtors.
When contacting debtors over the phone, a collection agent is required to keep the debt confidential and only speak about it with the debtor. For example, if a person other than the debtor answers the collector’s call, the agent should leave his name and telephone number for the debtor to reach and only say that the matter is important without specifying that it is money owed. If the agent’s call is answered by the debtor’s answering machine, a collection agent can leave a message such as “Hello, my name is Mary Smith and I am calling John Jones on a very urgent matter. Mr. Jones, call 1-800-555-5555 ASAP.
The phone number that a collection agent gives a debtor to call should be toll-free so that the call costs debtors nothing. When speaking with debtors, collection agents try everything they can within the law to get debtors to agree to a payment schedule. A collections agent is usually responsible for several delinquent accounts that they work with every day.
It is illegal for collection agents to make any kind of threat to debtors. If a debtor consistently refuses an agent’s requests for payment, the collection agency may ask the agent to send a demand letter to the debtor. A demand letter states an amount and time frame within which the debtor must pay to avoid being sued for the debt.
Billing jobs have a high turnover rate. A collections agent is likely to leave due to the stress of arguing with debtors every day. The pressure to collect payments from debtors can be high, as collection agents are often evaluated and paid based on their performance in generating payments from debtors.
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