Collections & Credit Risk articles from July 2006

Collections & Credit Risk archives from July 2006

Working for Uncle Sam Comes with Caveats.
July 1, 2006... By the time this issue comes out, I'll have been to my 35th high school reunion in New York. Xavier High School on 16th Street in Manhattan, for any New Yorkers out there who may be wondering. Getting ready for that big event got me...

Debt Buyers Seek New Ownership Options as Wall Street Snubs Them.(Encore Group Inc., NCO Group Inc.)
July 1, 2006... Wall Street is picking on public debt buyers these days. So two of them, Encore Capital Group Inc. and NCO Group Inc., have decided to take their stock and go home - or at least pursue other ownership alternatives. Their moves demonstrate...

Recent Deals.
July 1, 2006... The Outsource Group, a healthcare-focused accounts receivable management firm in St. Louis, acquired 100 percent of the stock of Quantum Credit Service Inc., Austin, Texas, which serves the Texas healthcare market. The acquisition will extend...

Economists Dismiss April Debt Jump.(consumer credit)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Consumers surprised economists in April with new borrowing well above expectations but those same experts aren't convinced the April debt level reflects the start of a trend to higher borrowing levels. The Federal Reserve reported that...

IRS Counseling Crackdown Could Help The Business Better Explain Credit Counseling to Consumers.
July 1, 2006... The Internal Revenue Service gave the credit counseling business a black eye with its decision to remove the tax-exempt status from 41 agencies, but the long-term impact of that decision could be to strengthen the industry and help consumers...

Unorthodox Hiring Can Spell Lower Turnover.
July 1, 2006... Agencies that bring a counter-intuitive approach to recruiting collectors could discover they've found the answer for retaining workers in a business known for its high turnover rates, agreed two speakers at the annual Consumer Bankers...

Collection Salaries Rise 3.39%.
July 1, 2006... Collection salaries increased an average of 3.39 percent from March 2005 through the start of June 2006, according to an exclusive Collections & Credit Risk analysis of data compiled by Web site Salary.com (see chart, page 64). Salaries...

Important Lessons after the Storm: Hurricane Katrina hit Metairie, La., a commercial collection center, hard but firms there are bouncing back. They've learned some important disaster planning lessons along the way.
July 1, 2006... Louisiana-based Clovis & Roche had a disaster recovery plan that called for moving essential records and computer hard drives to the second floor of its two-story building in Metairie, a town on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain close by...

Lessons Learned from Katrina.(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... 1. Have back-up servers or at least data backed-up at a remote site which can be accessed quickly. 2. Know how to reach all employees and how they can reach you, even when cell phones or other normal communications go down. 3. Keep...

What's Next For Ohio?: The attorney general modernized collections and recovered more but not without a major public controversy. What his successor plans is an unanswered question.
July 1, 2006... There's not much love lost between state attorneys general and debt collectors. Charged with protecting consumers' rights and subject to quadrennial elections as "The People's Lawyers," attorneys general most often focus on collectors when...

Ohio's Collection Efforts Bear Fruit.
July 1, 2006... DEPARTMENT YTD ASSIGNED* YTD COLLECTED Dept. Taxation Personal Income tax $95,196,796 $43,876,813 Medicaid Estate Recovery $2,622,840,462 $16,926,830 ...

Searching for Direction: Collectors and debt buyers are doing well this year but all have their fingers crossed about what's ahead.
July 1, 2006... In the film classic The Magnificent Seven, actor Steve McQueen tells the story of a man who jumps off a tall building. As he hurtles past floor after floor, he can be heard to say: "So far, so good." So far, so good largely sums up the...

The Industry At Mid-Year.(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... I. Business is Good a. Debt sales remain robust. b. Collection work stays strong. c. While pinched by higher costs, consumers remain able to repay debts. II. But What's Ahead is Unclear a. Credit grantors are demanding lower fees,...

Software Be Nimble, Software Be Quick: Vendors are responding to collection and debt buying markets demanding techie tools that make more efficient use of staff time and effort.
July 1, 2006... Imagine a retail credit card issuer being able to minimize delinquencies and bad debt by considering the various products its cardholders buy in their store as part of their overall risk score. What? It's not as far-fetched as it sounds....

A Sample of Collections Technology.(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Vendor Product Description Austin Logistics ActionSelect Allows collection managers to weigh the cost of each action against a projected ...

HAL is Sounding Different These Days: As automated speech gets better and better, collectors are experimenting with new systems to improve operations.
July 1, 2006... Remember the diabolic computer HAL in the movie 2001:A Space Odyssey? It seemed remarkable in 1968 when the movie opened that HAL actually talked to the astronauts. Even more striking was the fact that HAL didn't speak with a...

Automated Voice Collection Systems.
July 1, 2006... A Sample of Resources Company Website PAR3 Communications http://www.par3.com SoundBite Communications http://www.soundbite.com Premiere Global Services http://www.premiereglobal.com ...

Collectors Are Finding Electronic Speech Useful...(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... 1. Quality and the range of voices available have improved dramatically. 2. Using electronic speech systems can be cheaper and more effective than using agents on some calls. Automated systems have higher contact rates. 3. Automated...

Eenie, Meenie , Minie, Bills: Which bills do consumers pay first? When times get tough, utilities lose out to credit cards.
July 1, 2006... For Mark Johnson and his family, money is getting tight. It's been six months since he was laid off from his job. The severance pay and his family savings are now gone. His family is on the brink of tumbling under a mountain of debt. Which...

Advertising and Service Contacts for Collections & Credit Risk and Credit & Collections World.(Brief article)(List)
July 1, 2006... Advertising Associate Publisher Brenda Schultheis 550 West Van Buren, Suite 1100 Chicago, Illinois 60607 Brenda.Schultheissourcemedia.com (847) 251-1588 Fax: (847) 251-0887 Advertising Sales Manager ...