How do You Find a Jewel in a Tarnished Crown?

Personal recommendation obviously means a lot when you need to find a good debt collection agency – and that’s particularly the case if the recommending party has been using the agency for some time, because some agencies begin well, perform brilliantly for six months or so, and then ‘go off’ as it were. Fortunately, that doesn’t happen too often these days: the collection business was always very competitive, and the ‘crunch’ has ensured that poor performance isn’t an option.

In the absence of personal recommendation, it’s worth noting that reputatable agents tend to be members of the CCTA and/or the Credit Services Association (CSA). In most cases any member of the CSA will have been vetted, might have sat a written or taken an oral examination, and would have agreed to abide by the Association’s Code of Practice, which is endorsed by the Office of Fair Trading. In addition, such an agent would usually have to have been in business for some time, and would need to give an annual assurance of solvency.

Some agencies are moving toward providing greater support of credit control teams at an earlier stage in the collection process - intervening before an overdue payment has actually become 'a debt', helping with pre-due calls, and checking invoice details at busy times of the year - and it will be interesting to see where that goes.

In the meantime, if you want to use an agent, getting a list from the CSA would be a good place to start.