Debt Collection Strategies

Third party debt collection services have various successful strategies that they use for recovering money that is owed to their clients.  If other options have been exhausted for the collection of overdue funds, it could be time to employ the services of a professional agency.  The tactics used to recover the money might be as follows.

Mail

A debt recovery service will typically send out a series of demand letters.  A demand letter includes the name and address of the debtor, the details of the creditor, the total amount outstanding and the details of the collection agency and agent.  The first letter is likely to be a courteous reminder although the language used is designed to encourage the debtor to pay.

Sometimes the initial letter is enough to prompt payment.  A letter from a third party could raise fears of a damaged credit rating or payment might be made immediately simply because of the psychological impact of contact from an outside source.

Successive letters will contain progressively strong language, as is necessary.  Office of Fair Trading (OFT) guidelines must be followed, however, and abusive or threatening language should not be used.  Communication must also be clear, accurate and not misleading.  A good debt collection service will act in a manner that allows amicable relationships with customers to be maintained while at the same time recovering the debt outstanding.

Telephone

Another strategy might be to verbally demand payment of the debt.  Because of data protection requirements, no information can be disclosed to anyone who answers the call other than the debtor.  The agent might call at various times of day to try and establish the best time of making contact.  In the same way as for written correspondence, the OFT guidelines do not allow any threatening or unfair strategies to be used when making verbal contact with the debtor.  Negotiation tactics might be used to arrange a mutually acceptable method of paying the debt.

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