Collection Agencies Have a Couple of Difficult Hills to Climb

Collection agencies can be very useful in some circumstances and the credit industry does, on the whole, recognise that fact. However, there is no doubt that debt collection agencies have a long-standing and difficult reputation to live down - and recent adverse publicity relating to consumer collections hasn't helped at all, despite the fact that quite a lot of consumer debt is taken care of 'in-house' by, for example, banking organisations, rather than regular (and more strictly regulated!)collection agencies.

Quite apart from that, of course, some credit managers prefer to use a firm of Solicitors rather than a debt collection agency.

One theory being punted about at the moment is that collection agency personnel are better trained to deal with debt collection than Solicitors are - that they have more appropriate telephone and negotiating skills, are better equipped to trace defaulters, and can arrange 'doorstep collection'. I personally don't agree that that is the case. Solicitors specialising in debt collection have all the appropriate skills and all the appropriate computer software to do an excellent job - and they don't have a 'difficult reputation' to overcome. Furthermore, collections sent to agencies very often end up with Solicitors in any event - which often means that, effectively, the client pays more than he might have done had he gone to a Solicitor in the first instance.