Tuesday, November 1, 2011

How To Assess A Collection Agency

I am not an attorney, I am a judgment referral specialist (Judgment Broker). This article is my opinion, based on my experience in California, and laws are different in every state. If you ever require a strategy to use or legal advice, you should contact a lawyer.

When you own a judgment or debt, there are no guarantees you will collect anything. However, many people want to try. When you try, there are many choices, that range from trying to do it yourself, to which professional you will retain, to try to collect some of what is owed to you.

Collecting debt or judgment money is usually very time consuming and expensive. Be ready to share a large portion of what is collected with anyone that helps to recover your money.

Which factors should you consider, when selecting the right collection agency? The 6 factors to weigh when picking a collection agency are their costs, location, contract, ownership policy, effectiveness, and customer service.

1) Costs: There are trade offs, with the costs of any recovery attempt, or retaining any collection agency. Pure contingency, where you pay nothing, moves all the risks to the agency, and they must charge more. When the contingency fee is reduced, the fees one must pay usually increases. When you pay a larger share to get your debt or judgment recovered, there should not be any extra up front, or other charges.

When the judgment or debt, and the debtor's available assets are large, one might be able to get a better rate, however this does not happen too often because most debtors do not hold onto money very long.

2) Location: It always increases the odds for collecting when the enforcer is close to the debtor or their assets. The best collection agencies hire private investigators and attorneys in each state, in case the debtor moves.

3) Contract: The best contracts have large type, are not too long, are written to be easy to understand, with terms and costs clearly explained.

4) Effectiveness: The old school collection agencies often used only the primary tactics of nagging debtors to pay. All collection agencies starts by calling and writing letters to the debtor, then usually puts the debt on the credit report of the debtor. Some stop there, and do almost nothing more. The best collection agencies start with the same methods, and then use private investigators to find debtor assets, and their lawyers, to seize the debtor's assets to get you money.

5) Ownership Policy: The best collection agencies let you keep ownership of your judgment or debt. The best will admit if they can't make any more progress, and inform you of that in writing. The good news is one always owns their debt or judgment. The bad news is, if a good company cannot recover any funds, who can?

6) Customer Service: The best people and companies are rarely flakes. One drawback of a sole proprietor is when they become sick, busy, or detained, they may not be able to respond in a timely manner. It seems medium-sized businesses are best, because when a company gets too big, sometimes one hand does not know what the other hand is doing.

A judgment broker know the best collection agencies across the nation, and can save you a lot of time by finding you the best collection agency.


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http://www.JudgmentBuy.com - is the best and fastest judgment and debt solution, where Judgments and debts quickly get Purchased or recovered by the very best - matched to your debtor.

Mark Shapiro - Judgment Broker - Free leads for collection agencies and contingency collection attorneys.


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