Extensive Survey Illustrates That Working As A Debt Collectors Isn’t So Bad
In 2009, collection agencies all around the country participated in an intensive survey that aimed to single out the best places to work in the collections industry and why. With the results, the collections industry was able to identify a number of the most important parts of the job that makes a particular agency an employer of choice.
Company employees were asked to rate their agencies on an “ABC” scale, “A” being the best, “C” being the worst, “B” being in between. Small companies scored the most “A” ratings in comparison to larger and medium companies. The survey was able to determine that smaller companies were desired for a number of reasons, including the idea that employees are part of a team working towards a common goal, and the fact that leaders of smaller businesses in general are open to more input from employees.
Other factors responsible for high ratings included a feeling that the agency the employees were working for treated people like people, not numbers. Supervisors working at high scoring agencies were viewed as handling work related issues more adeptly, and seemed more open to feedback. The employees of the small companies that were selected as winners of the highest scores felt as though their supervisor helps them to grow to their fullest potential, and as if their agency might increase their pay. Employees of smaller companies additionally saw more room for advancement in the agencies.
Of all of the agencies of all sizes, employees were the least happy when it came to salary and benefits, and felt like their training and development lacked. But, overall ratings improved from the preceding year, most likely because of the sobering realities of difficult conditions and layoffs that happened over the last year.
Other major factors that had the largest influence on the positive opinions of employees included the belief that the leaders of the agency felt for their well being. Corporate objectives that were well planned with good follow through were highly valued, and leaders of agencies that were open to input from workers were much appreciated. Finally, out of all of the positive thoughts about their place of employment, the employees who thought they could trust the company reported the most favorable opinions.
Mallory Megan works for Rapid Recovery Solution and writes articles on credit collection agencies Check here for free reprint licence: Extensive Survey Illustrates That Working As A Debt Collectors Isn’t So Bad.
The Very Basics Of Debt Collection Part One
This is the first article in a three part series on the very basic facts of debt collection. When you take out an account, and don’t pay your account bills on time, the account goes delinquent and your bills turn into debt. A debt collector is a person whose job it is to try and get in contact with you and get that money back, or in layman’s terms, collect the debt.
Debt collectors can also be called bill collectors, account collectors, or collection agents. A lot of debt collectors work for third party collection companies. A creditor is the financial institute that you originally set up your account with. For example, you set up an account with a contractor to do work on your house. When you don’t pay your bills, this creditor will often hire outside of their company to get their debt collected, especially if their accounts receivable department is small.
Other collectors are employed directly by the original creditors. These agents are called in house collectors. Typically companies with in house collectors are finance based institutions like health care providers, utility companies, or credit card and mortgage companies. In house collectors are working straight for the creditors, while third party collectors are working for their own collection agency, so both sets of collectors must follow different guidelines and regulations concerning debt and directing payment.
If you are being contacted by a debt collector, try to determine if they are calling on behalf of the original creditor or a third party debt collection agency so you have a better idea how to proceed. If you are dealing with a third party debt collection agency for example, you are always going to pay the agency, not the creditor.
Collectors working under the creditors do not always have to adhere to all of the rules of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, while collectors working for a third party collection agency must. Mail from a creditor informing you that you owe a payment may be marked accordingly, while mail coming from a third party debt collection company can’t indicate that it is an attempt to collect money. To Be Continued In Parts Two And Three
Mallory Megan works for Rapid Recovery Solution and writes articles about medical collection agencies. This article, The Very Basics Of Debt Collection Part One is available for free reprint.
More Complaints About Collection Agencies Are Being Reported
The proof is in the pudding, and here it is. The amount of lawsuits and complaints about abusive, illegal and strong arm collection tactics that some dishonest debt collection companies utilize to collect has risen quite a bit in the past couple of years. Attorney Michael J. Koopmans, a lawyer who represents debtors who have been wronged weighs in with his input. According to Koopmans, he handles thirty to fifty cases at one time, all of them clients who claim that they have been bullied, harassed, and even threatened by collection companies.
According to Koopmans, this is a period where consumer debt is at an all time high and the economy is at an all time low, and at a time when a lot of debtors can’t afford to pay what they owe in one massive sum, he has noticed that collection agents are becoming less and less willing to work out some sort of a payment plan. “Now the collection agents are claiming they can’t do that” says Koopmans. “They say they’re only going to have this account for a short while, that they need a lot of the money, they need it fast, and they need it up front.”
Deputy Attorney General of Indiana, David Paetzmaann claims that his workplace receives at least a dozen telephone calls every week from people complaining about collection agents who they feel are harassing them. According to Paetzmann, the number of calls has increased by more than twenty percent from just four years ago.
One of the agencies that has received the brunt of complaints is called Premiere Credit of North America. A spokeswoman has countered that the agency has “tough policies, training, and monitoring against harassment and threats.” What does Paetzmann suggest? That consumers break out the books and bone up on their knowledge of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the legal restrictions that it puts on collection agents.
First of all, a debt collector is only permitted legally to call debtors between eight o’clock AM and nine o’clock PM. Additionally, the act also strictly prohibits collection agents from lying to you by claiming that they have the authority to arrest you or seize your property (they don’t). They are not permitted to discuss your debt with anyone else, and attempting to collect a fee for themselves in addition to the amount you already owe is clearly illegal as well.
Mallory Megan works for Rapid Recovery Solution and writes articles about medical collection agencies. Also published at More Complaints About Collection Agencies Are Being Reported.
Investing In Bonds- How Is It Done And Is It Safe?
Stocks and bonds. You have doubtlessly heard of them, and if you have been reading my articles, you know what they are. If you haven’t, here’s a quick update: stocks represent a fraction of ownership in a company, and a bond represents money that a company “borrowed” and has to pay back on set dates. You may have heard that bonds are “safer” to invest in than stocks, but is this true? How are bonds traded, and what are the differences between a stock market and a bond market? Hopefully, this article can put these questions to rest.
Unlike the stock market, bonds markets do not usually have a centralized trading system. Instead, bonds will be traded in decentralized, dealer based over the counter markets. When an investor buys or sells a bond, the counter party to the trade is almost always a bank acting as a dealer. Another difference between bond markets and stock markets is that sometimes investors don’t pay broker’s fees to dealers with whom they buy or sell bonds. Instead, the dealers get their money by collecting the spread, which is the difference between the price at which the dealer buys a bond from one investor and the price at which he sells the same bond to another investor.
In terms of volatility, bonds are usually somewhat safer than stocks, especially short and medium dated bonds, but the value of stocks can definitely change. Bonds are liquid – it’s fairly simple to sell a bond investment, and the safety of a fixed interest payment that you will receive twice a year is attractive. Bondholders additionally enjoy certain legal protections: in the United States if a company goes bankrupt, its bondholders will be paid before stockholders because they are creditors.
But, bonds also come with their risks. Fixed rate bonds are subject to interest rate risk, which means that their market prices will shrink in value when the interest rates rise. Bonds can also be subject to other risk factors such as call and prepayment risk, reinvestment risk, event risk, liquidity risk, credit risk, inflation risk, yield curve risk, volatility risk and sovereign risk. Price changes in a bond can also affect mutual funds that hold these bonds immediately. If the value of the bonds in a trading portfolio has plummeted over the day, the value of the portfolio will also have fallen.
Finally, in the case of bankruptcy, because there is a hierarchy of creditors that must be paid that bondholders are not on top of, there is no guarantee of how much money will go to repay the bondholders even though the money will go to them first before shareholders. Bondholders have been known to lose some or all of their money when this happens.
Mallory Megan works for Rapid Recovery Solution and writes articles on nationwide collection agencies. Check here for free reprint licence: Investing In Bonds- How Is It Done And Is It Safe?.