Collections & Credit Risk articles from December 2003

Collections & Credit Risk archives from December 2003

2004 Outlook: What's Your Take?
December 1, 2003... Our cover story this month examines the opinions of economic and industry experts about what the coming year may mean for credit and collections professionals. (See "Economic Outlook: Which Way Is Up?" which begins on page 24.) The crystal...

Letters to the Editor.(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... Higher Standard To the Editor: Failure to report hurts young borrowers with a thin credit file. Repayment of student loans occurs subsequent to the student graduating. The post-graduation period is critical to young adults since they...

Survey Results.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Here's how visitors to Credit & Collections World, Collections & Credit Risk's website, voted on this month's Instant Survey: The Student Loan Marketing Association no longer reports payment history on its student loans to two of the three...

High-Tech Debtor Scams Are Booming.
December 1, 2003... For people looking for a way out of paying their debts, the Internet is a veritable goldmine of ideas and resources. Beyond the standard "credit correction programs" often advertised in e-mail spam, the World Wide Web now serves as the source...

What's New?
December 1, 2003... Columbia Ultimate Launches New Unit Columbia Ultimate unveils a new business unit - Columbia Ultimate Banking, Finance & Legal - to provide specialized services, training, and support, in addition to its market leading software solutions....

Debt Depot Buys Edebt.
December 1, 2003... The Debt Depot acquired Edebt, an online exchange for debt sales transactions, in early October. A sister company to Worldwide Asset Management, The Debt Depot provides selling and financing options to the debt-buying industry. With the...

California Law Shakes Call Center Industry: California led the charge toward tougher outbound calling rules. Now collectors must cope with the backlash as federal regulators follow suit. Just how painful are the new laws?
December 1, 2003... When California consumers began complaining a few years ago about the growing number of abandoned telemarketing calls, state legislators set out to resolve the problem. The result? Passage of a law limiting abandoned calls to 1% of total...

Economic Outlook: Which Way Is Up?: Most signs seem to point to an economy pulling out of its long slump, but the question remains: What direction will credit and collections take in 2004?
December 1, 2003... Back in the late 1990s, it was difficult to believe the good economic times would ever end. Now after a multi-year slump, it's just as hard to have faith that good times could be just around the corner. Skittish executives remain nervous...

School Daze for Student Loans: Despite soaring college costs, default rates on student loans are at an all-time low. Is there still plenty of debt left for collections agencies to collect?
December 1, 2003... One of the biggest personal finance stories of the year has been the jolting increase in college tuition and fees. A perfect storm of factors sent college costs whirling: cutbacks in revenues from states and endowments; higher operating...

Too Much Debt?(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Recent grads are discovering - to their disappointment - that they took on so much debt during their college years that repaying it crimps their style. More than half of college graduates (52%) report owing between $10,000 and $40,000 in...

Agency Rankings: Who's on Top?: Most of the names are familiar, but there have been some changes. Two firms formerly in the Top 25 were acquired by NCO Group, and one three-year-old firm bounded into the top ranks.
December 1, 2003... Two years have passed since our last agency ranking - a challenging period during which a number of the leading collections firms reported a decline in revenue for at least one of the past two years. The top of our list looks familiar. NCO...

Top 25 Collections Agencies (Ranked by 2002 Revenue).(Illustration)
December 1, 2003... (part 1 of 2) Rank Company 1 NCO Group Inc. 2 Outsourcing Solutions Inc. (OSI) 3 IntelliRisk Management Corp. 4 Risk Management Alternatives Inc. 5 Dun & Bradstreet...

The Anti-Fraud Battle Rages On: Fraud prevention and detection tools are hot. Still, keeping one step ahead of the perpetrators is no easy task.
December 1, 2003... Fraud and identity theft have been buzzwords in the financial services and retail industries in recent years and are likely to remain so for quite some time. As con artists become more sophisticated and the Internet makes the crimes harder to...

Fraud Detection and Prevention Tools.(Brief Article)(Directory)
December 1, 2003... (Partial list of vendors) Company ACI Worldwide ACL Services Acxiom Telephone Data Products Advanced Software Applications ChexSystems ChoicePoint CyberSource Dactek International Inc. Dun &...

Synchronization: A Wild Year Ahead: The job market as we've known it is fast disappearing as global synchronization undermines the need for local labor to meet local needs. Fasten your seat belts as the effects of this powerful force take hold.
December 1, 2003... Everybody wonders about the job market - especially the U.S. job market. It makes perfect sense to worry about it because of the connection between jobs, consumer spending, and economic growth. If jobs are hard to find and wages don't grow...

Broadcast Nets More $ Quicker: Using voice broadcast can help companies reach more debtors sooner and ultimately improve cash flow.
December 1, 2003... The collections industry has changed significantly in the past several years. Constrained by shrinking budgets, call center managers are seeking applications that boost employee productivity while reducing operating costs and increasing overall...