I think of the situation on the collection market today as the storm before the calm. The economy has gyrated and taken a turn for the worst -- and collectors are finding consumers without money in their wallets to pay past-due accounts, as spelled out in an interesting article recently in the Daily News of Los Angeles. Will it last? Logic dictates that the market dynamics for collectors should improve, at least because of greater volumes of pas… Continue

The current US recession has some in the collection industry stating the obvious. We need to get beyond that. Last week, InsideARM posted a blog on the US economy and collection technology, which stated that "Collectors who can leverage technology can make more contacts with fewer people, providing better performance now and setting the company up for a future economic rebound." We know that. The… Continue

Some people spend their entire life looking for that perfect match – the one that knows how to make you happy, has good communication skills, and the capacity to handle your debt in a timely fashion. What? Did you think I would be talking about anything else on this blog? TouchStar launched a site yesterday dedicated to matching debt holders with collection agencies. The site is called CollectorFind.com and works very simply: Visitors either click on "Find a Collection Agency" or "List a Collec… Continue

Acting early is the best way to treat delinquent debt – a popular tune sung to me by most third-party collectors, but how about keeping debts from becoming delinquent? That's the purpose of Fiserv's Predictive Risk Index Score Modeling (PRISM). The analytics engine, released today, identifies, monitors, and creates solutions for borrowers it deems default risks, even if they haven’t yet missed a payment. The solution is aimed at financial institutions that want to work out a debt before it has… Continue