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Can Municipalities Benefit From Collection Attorneys And Agencies In Collecting Their Debt?

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Debt collection for municipalities is a lot different than most other non government collection procedures.  The truth is that a municipality, just like a regular business will need to collect on different services or fees associated with the area.  The problem is that a lot of municipalities do not have the funds necessary to hire people full time and that is when a collections law firm can be there to help them. 

Why It Is More Important Now

The federal and state governments have made severe cuts in the past which means that most municipalities have seen their budget cut.  They need to get the cash coming in from parking fees, fines, water bills etc or they may face a dire financial situation.  Defaults also increased as the economy took a turn for the worse making it more important than ever to have a firm that can be successful in collecting debt for them.

Bad Signs

The clue to look at in order to know how bad the payment of those fines and fees are is the amount of time that they have been without a payment.  A payment that is behind over 60 days is thought of as a high risk for non-payment.  If your municipality has a lot of those then you could be in the red for a long time because you still need to pay bills on time.  You may need to consider bonds or other ways to raise revenue.

Best Options

A collections firm is a great option to get money in from unpaid fines and fees because it is cheaper than hiring full time employees and they have more experience to get the job done right.  Another option is to hire the firm to handle not just collections but also billing so that there are fewer delays in the payments altogether.

When Is It Time For A Municipality To Hire A Collection Attorney To Help Them Collect Debt?

Collecting Medical Debt With The A Collection Attorney Is The Way To Go

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When a bill has been overdue for several months, most companies will turn the debt over to an agency like a debt collection law firm.  Some debts are easier to collect than others.  Medical debts are probably the most emotionally or morally difficult debts to retrieve.  Collecting from someone whose bank account is already cleaned out from necessary medical treatment seems like kicking that person when he is down.  No one likes to do that.  That is why communication is so important.  Collection lawyers are trained to offer options of how to resolve debt problems.

Medical Debts Are Hard To Collect

Medical service institutions like hospitals, rehabilitation centers, doctor’s offices and companies that provide medical tests often do not have the time to pursue people who owe them money.  Debt collection agencies provide a valuable service for the institutions that provided services without being compensated.  While in an ideal world everyone should be able to receive free medical treatment, the cold, hard truth is that if everyone were to get treatments and care without paying for them, the companies providing those treatments and care could not stay in business. 

Do Not Fight With Your Clients or Customers

Some businesses actually have their own staff that handles delinquent payments for sometimes up to six months before turning them over to dedicated collection attorneys.  It makes sense to let a collection attorney work with non-paying clients.  When a collection attorney works with the debtor, the business is removed from exerting pressure on the client to collect the debt.  Businesses want their clients’ or customer’s business.  They do not want to be identified as treating their customers, clients, or patients in anything but a professional and congenial manner.  Unfortunately, no business can afford to ignore client debts unless they want to risk being in financial difficulty themselves.  A collection law firm will take on the role of getting the debt paid without repercussions to the business itself.

Are Government Contracts the Next Big Wave for Collection Agencies and Attorneys

When the economy faces uncertain times, government contracts can prove to be a lucrative and steady income for your collections business.  Beyond the increased business and stable pipeline of income, one of the biggest pros to securing a government contract is that you can be assured of prompt payment—often in as little as 15 days. 

Some of the cases for which both local and state governmental agencies hire outside collections firms include motor vehicle violations, parking violations, and court-mandated alimony.  On a federal level, student loans are becoming a hot commodity for collections as many people are defaulting on them, and can prove to be extremely lucrative for any collection agency that manages to secure the contract. 

The best way to apply for a government contract if you are a collection agency is to look on the Federal Business Opportunities website.  In order to do this, you will need your firm’s North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)code—this can be acquired from your accountant or you can find it through a search of the U.S. Census Bureau’s website. 

The process to apply for a government contract isn’t an easy one, however, and many small businesses fail to secure one simply because they don’t spend the time and effort required to make sure they are familiar with the process and have the funds needed to start.  Experts estimate that obtaining a government contract for your collection agency will cost approximately $3,500 and take approximately eight months to achieve.  And this is only if you follow the rules carefully and pay due diligence to deadlines and certification requirements in order to get priority bidding status for your collections firm. 

Many Chambers of Commerce and Small Business Association chapters offer workshops and informational sessions to help small businesses cover their bases in obtaining a government contract.  Use these resources that are available to you, or you can hire a private consultant who will guide you through the process.

How to Use Automation and Virtual Collection Systems to Reduce Costs and be Profitable

The economic problems of the past 5 years have been significant, resulting in the double-edged sword of increased collections opportunities AND increased difficulty in collecting on those accounts.  In order to compensate for increased accounts and increased need to cut on expenses, collections firms are learning to make use of the benefits that automation and virtual collection systems can bring. 

The term ‘virtual collections’ generally refers to applications that include:

1. Electronic payment options
2. Automated negotiation features
3. Interactive collection communications (ICC), such as the Internet, e-mail, text messaging, and interactive voice response systems (IVRs)

Through the use of an automated collection system, it’s easy to offer delinquent customers the opportunity to agree to an individually tailored settlement any time of day or night, 7 days a week.  These automated systems allow collection firms and collection attorneys to collect on debts immediately online and use real-time credit scores to help determine the customer’s ability to pay on a debt.  Such information can be vital in providing a suitable automated negotiation that will be mutually beneficial to both the collector and the delinquent customer. 

You’ll find that the payment initiation procedures vary, depending on the virtual collections system used.  Some virtual collections systems will be limited to electronic bill pay, while other will add more extensive features allowing debt negotiations.  The types of payment channels will differ, as well, with some collecting mainly via credit or debit cards and ACH payment, and others offering additional features such as PayPal and other online payment portals.  These additional payment initiation features can help with your collection efforts, as many delinquent customers make money on the side through eBay or Craigslist and are often paid for these transactions through PayPal. 

The greatest benefit to virtual collections systems, however, lies in their ability to provide advance reporting and analytics regarding collection accounts.  This, combined with the feature of real-time credit report information, help collection agencies determine the extent to which their delinquent accounts should be pursued based on the customer’s most up-to-date credit information.  

Agent or Attorney- Who Gets You More Money?

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So you have some debtors who refuse to pay up, huh? You’ve tried everything in your power to get them to take responsibility for their debts, but they are either unresponsive or they simply refuse to pay you a single cent of the loan they owe you. It’s become clear that if you want to restore cash flow from this debtor’s account, you will need to take decisive action and hire a collection professional to settle the matter for you.

But who should you hire- a collection agent, or an attorney?

For most people, the choice between an agent and an attorney revolves around which professional will get them more money from their debtors. And in just about every case, hiring an attorney is the more profitable choice to make.

Debtors love to ignore collection agents. Debtors understand that collection agents don’t actually have any power in and of themselves. Agents are just normal employees who work for collection companies and have no leverage over their debtors. Even more importantly, a collection agent can’t personally take a debtor to court or levy serious action against them. Instead, a collection agent can only harass a debtor with phone calls and letters.

These days debtors are experts at dodging or otherwise ignoring these annoying attempts at communication, rendering collection agents effectively powerless. If a collection agent wants to take any sort of serious action against a debtor, they will need to contact an attorney.

Only an attorney can provide a debtor with the real pressure they need to begin repayment. If your collection agency needs to hire an attorney to enforce their actions, then why not skip the middle-man and simply hire an attorney from the start? Not only will you save money, but communication from an attorney bears the weight you need to actually see positive action from your debtors. 

Why the Old Debt Collection Letter Doesn’t Work Anymore

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Decades ago all a debt collector had to do was send along a letter to their prospect, letting that prospect know what they owed and when they owed it by, and that letter would generally do the trick. These days, the debt collection letter just doesn’t work anymore. Not only are you unlikely to receive any money back from any debt collection letter you send out, but there’s a low chance your prospect will ever even read your message. There are a couple of big reasons for this change.

First, you are less likely to have an accurate address where your prospect can be reached. People move around a whole lot more these days than ever before, and as a result it’s likely your prospect no longer lives at the address you would send your letter to in the first place. 

Second, even if your letter is received by your prospect there’s a good chance they will just ignore it, or even shred it. It’s easy to blame this on apathy or discourtesy, but it’s more likely due to the fact people just receive so many messages every day they’ve grown used to simply ignoring what doesn’t interest them. Tack on the fact most people don’t want to respond to a collection letter and you have a recipe for never being read, no matter how many letters you send.

Finally, people just don’t take collection letters very seriously these days. They know that a letter is just a letter, and they are accustomed to receiving more serious forms of pressure from debt collectors, such as phone calls, emails and other more forceful forms of communication. In the big picture, a collection letter is inconsequential to today’s prospect.  

The Proven Formula for Locating Debtors

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Lenders are constantly faced with the unfortunate reality that plenty of their debtors will attempt to go off the grid to avoid the responsibility of paying back their loan. While many lenders have procedures in place for collecting from debtors who are easy to find and contact, most lenders find themselves powerless to track down and elicit payments from debtors who have skipped town. Yet just because a case is difficult for a lending agency doesn’t mean it’s impossible for a professional collections agency.

Debt collection agencies and debt buyers develop proven formulas for finding skipped debtors. This process is referred to as “skip tracing” and it employs many of the same methodologies as private investigators and other professionals use to locate any missing person.

One of the most important skip tracing actions involves contacting and putting an acceptable amount of pressure on the debtor’s contacts. Speaking with all listed employers, all institutions and organizations the debtor is associated with, and contacting any references the debtor listed on their loan application often bears fruit. Even if these connections fail to offer assistance they will often offer up the name and contact information of other leads who may provide access to the missing debtor. The key to receiving useful information from a debtor’s connections and their leads lies in communicating with them in the right manner. E-mail and phone calls are easy to dismiss and to ignore, but in person meetings and attempts at making contact are more likely to result in open and honest communication.

The skip tracing formula will vary from debtor to debtor, but ultimately there are a few key principles which never vary.

Small Business Collections - How Collection Efforts can Benefit Small Businesses

There are all types of debt collection claims that can be handled by the office of Ross Gelfand. If you have a small business, sometimes these are the most difficult types of collections to be reimbursed on. With today’s economy, it is harder to collect unpaid balances, but at the office of Ross Gelfand has found a way to make it easier by offering services for commercial, rental, medical, and skip tracing services. What the help of their office they can help small businesses collect the money that is owed to them. They have a team of experts waiting to answer any type of questions that you may have. 

Unfortunately, most small business will one day have a situation with collections. At first, you may not realize how much revenue you may be losing every day. The law office of Ross Gelfand has done a remarkable job recovering some of the lost currency. They offer many different types of services. They can help you handle a vast variety of small business situations and business collections services. They can handle everything from a commercial lease to a contract on the building. Sometimes the most difficult situations may be insurance subrogation but this office will always rise to the occasion, and succeed to help you get the benefits you have deserved. They provide telecommunications and high technology on your behalf to get you the best return possible within your legal rights. 

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By having the ability to collect some revenue on your behalf your small business can start to thrive. Your small business will be likely to succeed even more because you can reinvest your own hard earned money back into your business. There has never been a more dedicated law firm, then Ross Gelfand to help the small company. It may be just a few dollars here and there, but those few dollars add up. With today’s economy, every little bit helps, and before you realize the money that is owed to you the figure could be in the thousands. Ross Gelfand has the experience and the knowledge to help you collect everything that is owed to you. The law offices of Ross Gelfand work within the legal guidelines of several different states. They will do all the necessary paperwork, phone calls, and follow-up on your behalf so that you, as a small business owner, will have one less thing to worry about.