Commissioner Alan Peterson said during the meeting that he wasn’t ready to sign at the dotted line in the piggyback contract alongside officials in Orange County because he first wanted to know how the collection agency does its business.

He wanted to know how commonly the agency calls residents about their delinquent accounts and what times of the day those calls were made. He also wished to know how many written notices would be sent to residents in arrears for their emergency medical care during an ambulance ride.

“My overriding concern on this whole issue is that unlike most bills people incur, this is an involuntary expense,” Peterson said. “People don’t normally choose to take an ambulance for medical care.”

Commissioner Barbara Revels said she also wanted to ensure the county wasn’t getting into business with a “heavy-handed” collection agency that could result in consumer backlash, like some that’s now being seen around the country.

Under the county’s current billing routines, insurance companies are billed for a patient who receives medical care and transport. If the patient is not insured or the insurance does not cover the full balance due, a third-party billing company steps in and attempts to collect the debt through written notices with the help of information verification from Tax Collector Suzanne Johnston’s office. The account is kept open and debt collection attempts continue for up to a year, at which time the debt is moved to a “bad debt” list and charged off by commissioners.

The debts are not placed on residents’ credit reports and quarrelsome telephone tactics are not used for collection.

Peterson also said if the board decides to move forward in hiring a collection agency, he’d like to see county officials add a new level of regular review to the accounts on its “bad debt” list before they’re turned over for collection.

“There should be a review of each and every account to see if it makes sense to turn it over to the collection agency,” Peterson said.

He requested county staff obtain the proposed collection agency’s procedures and has asked them to present an outline of the policy they will use for reviewing accounts before they’re turned over to the agency sometime before the end of July.

“We haven’t had a collection agency up to this point, so I don’t think it would hurt to delay the decision two weeks,” said County Administrator Craig Coffey.

Mallory is employed by a debt collection agency. Also, she composes articles on business, finance, and collections. .

Collection agencies use two kinds of fee structures. Some of them send you a bill each month, while others take their money out of the funds they recover for you. The latter is clearly preferable, because it doesn’t cost you money upfront and it shows you that they have confidence in their ability to collect. There’s really no reason to pay fees up front to a collection agency when so many of them don’t require it.

Some agencies belong to professional collection associations, while others do not. There are two such groups in the US, the Commercial Law League of America and the American Collectors Association. It’s preferable to hire a member firm for collections because they take their professional standing seriously.

In order to be a member of one of these associations, a collection agency has to act within strict professional ethics and adhere to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. In addition, both organizations provide continuing education courses for their members, so a collection agency that belongs to one of these two groups is preferable to one that doesn’t.

In addition, collection agencies that belong to professional organizations are more likely to do their own work rather than outsourcing it. This is important because you want accountability regarding your accounts. If you don’t know the people who are actually performing the collections you can’t really keep an eye on them.

Another thing to ask when you’re interviewing collection agencies is whether or not they make use of private investigation firms or software. Sometimes the hardest part of the collections process is locating the client. It’s absolutely imperative to pick a collections firm that will go the extra mile and hunt the debtor down if the current phone number and address you have for them isn’t working.

Agencies that incorporate private investigative services into their offerings are also preferable. One of the most difficult parts of the collections job is tracking down missing debtors. An agency that incorporates investigations into the services they offer you will cost less and be more efficient than one who has to outsource their investigations or one who doesn’t do investigations at all.

Finally, make sure your collection agency has staff working outside of standard business hours in order to maximize your collections efforts. If you have collections all over the country it’s better to hire an agency with offices nationwide in order to deal with disparate time zones. Even if all of your collections are local, make sure the collection agency has some people who work early and some who work late, because collections calls outside of the 9-5 time frame are usually more successful.

David P. Montana has three decades experience as an industry professional, business consultant and published writer in debt collection agency services. David offers more beneficial tools and resources about nationwide debt collection agency services.

If collections are a part of your responsibility, chances are good that at some point you’ll want to hire an outside collection agency. Debt collection is a job best handled by professionals, and since you rarely have to pay a collection agency up front, hiring one frees you up to do other things that are more in the line of business building. But how do you pick the right collection agency? Following are some things to look for.

The first thing you need to ask when trying to hire collection agencies is whether or not they charge an upfront fee. Most collection agencies charge a percentage of the money they recover. This gives them more incentive to be successful, so there’s really no reason to employ a collection agency that takes your money up front. It frees up more of your cash flow to pay a percentage fee.

Your next question should be if they are members of one of the two professional societies for collections people: the American Collectors Association or the Commercial Law League of America. Membership in these associations indicates a commitment to professional service.

In order to be a member of one of these associations, a collection agency has to act within strict professional ethics and adhere to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. In addition, both organizations provide continuing education courses for their members, so a collection agency that belongs to one of these two groups is preferable to one that doesn’t.

You also want to pick a collection agency that will let you view your accounts online. Though you’re delegating the task to them, you need to be able to keep an eye on things for your peace of mind. An agency that allows you online access to your accounts is preferable to one that does periodic reporting in the mail.

An important way to keep an eye on your collections files when they’ve been outsourced is online access, so one of the most important criteria for choosing a collection agency is whether or not they offer you online access to your accounts. You want to be able to check on their progress at all times, so agencies that do this are better than agencies who only offer you reports periodically in the mail.

Agencies that incorporate private investigative services into their offerings are also preferable. One of the most difficult parts of the collections job is tracking down missing debtors. An agency that incorporates investigations into the services they offer you will cost less and be more efficient than one who has to outsource their investigations or one who doesn’t do investigations at all.

Finally, make sure your collection agency has staff working outside of standard business hours in order to maximize your collections efforts. If you have collections all over the country it’s better to hire an agency with offices nationwide in order to deal with disparate time zones. Even if all of your collections are local, make sure the collection agency has some people who work early and some who work late, because collections calls outside of the 9-5 time frame are usually more successful.

Government debt collection is not your run-of-the-mill debt collection. Debt collection for stores or credit cards or mortgage companies use a certain set of practices, while government debt collection is very different because the methods of leverage over the debtors are different.

Some people don’t even consider the fact that the government has debt collection concerns. However, they have income they rely on to keep running just the way ordinary businesses do. If the incoming receivables stop, the government can not run smoothly.

Parking tickets and traffic violations have a built-in system to ensure prompt payment. The scofflaw who ignores them will find himself or herself in jail eventually. However, when it comes to utility bills, debt collection can prove more of a challenge.

There are some areas of government debt where collections are easy. Parking violations or traffic violations have built-in checks and balances. If the driver does not pay, he or she loses his or her license. Similarly, library fines cause borrowing privileges to be suspended. The debtor cannot perpetually ignore these problems. Eventually the consequences will cause him or her to respond.

Once a bill has been unpaid for more than 60 days, the chances that it will never be paid rise steeply. If you’ve been unable to collect on a bill past the 60 day mark, it’s time to get a professional debt collector that is familiar with government debt collection involved. A good agency will know how to coerce people to pay on default accounts.

Alternatively, you can hire collections people who do the billing for you right at the start of the process. This is a good option for municipalities, since having a third party company do collections for you saves both time and money. Should an account go into default, the agency can start collections techniques immediately.

A collections agency that specializes in government debt issues will use the most proven techniques to recover money before steps are taken such as turning off utilities or foreclosing on property due to taxes. For the municipality, it’s preferable to make money on the account without having to get involved in expensive prospects like foreclosures or expend labor on turning off utilities and then having to turn them back on again.

If you turn your first party billing over to a company that specializes in this area, you will receive significant cost benefits because this type of collection agency handles a large volume of mail and therefore can pass their volume discounts on to the customer. A specialized collection agency can offer huge benefits to the municipality in terms of government debt collection. The smart collections manager will make use of their services sooner rather than later.

Few companies think about the advantages of hiring an outsource billing service, but these benefits are many for a variety of businesses. Following is a discussion of the good reasons to obtain an outsource billing service and the way to choose the right one for your company.

Outsource billing services work for both private businesses and governments, and they often are a branch of third party collection agencies. If you want to hire an outsource billing service your first criteria should be whether or not they also do collections. This will ensure that if your accounts go into collections, the process will be seamless and cost-effective.

Think about it this way. If you’re working with a billing service but don’t have them doing your collections, when accounts start reaching the troubling milestone of 60 days past due, you’ll waste time looking for someone else to handle the collections process.

This may not seem like a big deal but it can mean the difference between getting a decent recovery and losing out. Taking out a step of the process (sending delinquent files to a new vendor) will make a big difference to your collection efforts in the long run.

However, this is not the only reason to hire an outsource billing service. Outsource billing services do billing for a large number of clients. For this reason, they get serious discounts in operational areas that relate to collections, such as phone bills, mass mailings, etc. If you are collecting on 500 accounts and your outsource billing service is collecting on 50,000 accounts, it’s a no brainer that their costs will be lower.

An outsource billing company will also employ professionals that are very well versed in the best collections techniques. Rather than having people who are trained in sales or accounting trying to collect on bills, leave them to tasks that further your business and let a specialized collections force handle your billing and collections.

Ask your billing service if they can charge you following different structures depending on the services they perform. They’ll all charge you monthly for billing services, but because collection agencies usually take a percentage of the money they get back for you, they have the benefit of not requiring you to shell out money up front. This can significantly affect your cash flow, so if your company handles both jobs for you, ask them if they can bill you monthly for the billing but take a cut of any return on collection they achieve for you.

Finally, an outsource billing service can still give you immediate real time access to your billing and collections accounts. Choose one that gives you online access to your accounts so that you can keep an eye on all of their endeavors and solve problems if you notice any. Your outsource billing service can be your best friend, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep an eye on them.

With a global economy in place it’s very likely that some of your clients are located in foreign countries, which means that some of your collections are also located in foreign countries. Selecting international collection agencies is crucial to your business success if you have a lot of overseas clients and need to perform international debt collection. But how do you pick the right agencies?

The first thing you need to know is that laws and customs vary wildly from country to country. One major reason to use international agencies is that they are likely to be experienced in the language, culture and laws of individual countries. That means if you have collections in India, you want an agency that has handled a lot of collections in India. If you also have collections in China and Poland, you may want to hire three separate agencies for each area.

Say you’re a US business that has clients in Canada and Mexico, and 45% of your receivables come from outside your own country. In this case, it’s definitely worth it to hire an international agency. True professionals will be familiar with local laws, languages and business practices.

Beyond cultural sensitivity, international collection firms tend to be familiar with local law. Jurisdictions and processes can vary, and in order for your collection calls to have bite, they have to have the force of the law behind them. Employing collection agencies with local attorneys on staff is a must. Getting a collections call from a foreign country is not threatening to most people, while getting a call from a local attorney is.

Another reason to use international collection firms with lawyers is that rules governing jurisdiction (meaning the place whose laws govern the transaction if it involves two different countries) differ from place to place, so while you may get away with hiring non-attorneys as debt collectors for your domestic clients, lawyers are essential when it comes to international debt collection. It’s essential to ask when you’re interviewing potential agencies what the jurisdiction is in the country in which you wish to collect debts, and how they handle it.

This being said, attorneys cost more than ordinary people when it comes to debt collection. If your receivables in a particular region are small, it may make more sense to just write off the debt, but once they reach critical mass you get more benefit than cost out of using an international firm.

The third thing you need to know about international debt collection is that they can specialize in different industries. When you’re interviewing potential agencies, make sure that not only do they have lawyers on staff and deal with the country you need to collect in, but that they have experience in the industry you’re in as well. Collections for, say, a consumer electronics company can be very different than the process for services-oriented industries.

The final thing you need to know about international collection agencies is how they handle fees. Most collection agencies will accept a part of the return as their fee, so there’s no reason to pay up front. However, you still need to check out the currency issues. Do they take their fees in dollars or local currency? Do they recover the money in dollars or local currency? If they recover in local currency but pay you (and take their fees) in dollars, how and when do they calculate the exchange rate? If you use international collection agencies that have offices in other countries, this is less of a problem but it’s still worthwhile to ask them these questions.

Few companies think about the advantages of hiring an outsource billing service, but these benefits are many for a variety of businesses. Following is a discussion of the good reasons to obtain an outsource billing service and the way to choose the right one for your company.

Both private companies and municipal governments may hire outsource billing services not only to get billing taken care of, but also because of collections problems. Many collection agencies also handle billing, and vice versa. Ask your billing service or collection agency if they take care of the collections process from start to finish. If they do, you can be sure that your collections will be handled smoothly and efficiently. If not, you may want to switch to a service that does both.

That time issue is the number one reason to use a billing service, actually. Accounts that go more than 60 days unpaid are statistically likely to remain unpaid. For this reason, going into the collections process early and in earnest greatly raises the chances that you’ll actually collect on this debt.

That time window can make the difference between getting a good percentage of the money owed to you back and getting nothing. Statistics show that after 60 days the chances of getting a return drop steeply the more time goes on. If your billing service can handle collections without an exchange of files, it’s much more efficient and much more likely that you’ll get your money back.

Another thing to ask your outsource billing service is if they are getting volume discounts, and if so, if they’re passing the savings on to you. Many billing services do work for a high volume of companies, and therefore get bulk discounts on mailings, phone rates, etc. They should be passing these savings on to you. If they’re not, showing them you’re aware of this factor may prompt them to lower their rates.

An outsource billing company will also employ professionals that are very well versed in the best collections techniques. Rather than having people who are trained in sales or accounting trying to collect on bills, leave them to tasks that further your business and let a specialized collections force handle your billing and collections.

Of course, if you hire an outsource billing service you will have to pay them a monthly fee, while many if not most collections agencies only charge a percentage of any money they recover. This is a serious benefit to the cash flow of any business or governmental department, so when you’re interviewing potential outsource billing services, ask if they are willing to take a monthly fee for the billing services, but a percentage of the take for collections services.

The final thing to remember when choosing an outsource billing service is that you don’t want to just turn over your billing to an outside party and then completely forget about it. Although it’s better to have a third party perform these functions, you also want to keep an eye on things to make sure that they’re being done properly and going smoothly. For this reason, an outsource billing service that provides you with online access to all billing concerns is preferable to one that provides you with written reports.