Hopeful Trends in the Financial Industry

When the recession hit, it hit hard, and a great many businesses were seriously affected. However, few were as badly affected as the financial service industries, which really suffered. In fact, most financial services companies have not fully recovered from the “hit” of the recession. And what’s even worse is that most can’t focus all of their attention on rebuilding since they have to also focus on compliance. The good news, however, is that things are looking up for these companies; in fact, certain recent trends are giving many financial service professionals hope that their business success will greatly increase over the next few years.    

One “hopeful” trend that financial experts have noticed, for example, is that the number of US households is growing and is expected to increase even more in the coming years. This is typically a sign that the economy is recovering well, which means that it’s likely that financial service companies will also recover well.

Another great trend is that, according to recent surveys and studies, “consumer confidence” is on the rise, meaning that average consumers feel better and more confident about their financial futures, which makes them more likely to spend money, pay debts, and invest in their futures, all things that benefit the financial services industry immensely.

Finally, a growing trend that is good news for everybody is that the unemployment rate is steadily declining, which means that more people will be earning money, which, in turn, means that more people will have more disposable income to spend on financial products and services, which, of course, means that financial companies will benefit.

While there are never any guarantees when it comes to what the future holds, the trends don’t tend to lie, so with positive trends like these on the horizon, there is a very good chance that businesses in the financial services industries will find increased success in the coming years and will be able to recover from any leftover, recession-era struggles they have been dealing with. 

Unfair Laws Against Debt Collectors

It is certainly no secret that being a debt collector is hard work. These professionals must deal with rude people, hang-ups, and, more often than not, low success rates. On top of all of these problems, however, they typically face lawsuits from consumers and others just for doing their jobs. The law is written in favor of consumers, and it’s very easy to find legal fault with things debt collectors do, which means that most live in constant fear of being sued, making their already-difficult jobs even more difficult.   

As if the constant fear of a lawsuit wasn’t bad enough, debt collectors are often subjected to very unfair and inconsistent laws that other business people are not subjected to. For example, while other businesses can charge and pass along transaction fees, debt collectors are severely limited in their ability to do this, which means they and their businesses often lose money through processing the payments that they are able to collect upon, payments which are quite hard-won in the first place.

Debit and Credit Concerns

The vast majority of today’s consumers pay for items, services, or owed debts using their credit or debit cards. While doing so is super convenient for them, it charges a not so convenient fee to the person or business that is receiving the payment, known as a processing fee. Most businesses are allowed to escape these fees, which can quickly add up, by charging them to the consumer, but debt collectors are not allowed to charge these fees, which costs them big money over time.

Why It’s Wrong

There are many reasons that it’s wrong for debt collectors not to be allowed to charge transaction fees. To begin with, it is just not fair; if other businesses can do it and recoup some of their costs, why can’t debt collectors?

To make matters even worse, debt collectors are not required to offer the convenience of credit or debit payments to consumers; they do so to offer convenience to those consumers, and they get punished for their kind consideration. Furthermore, it is not as if debt collectors are trying to extort consumers or add on to their debt; they are simply trying to recoup the charges that they incur as they service the consumers that they work with.

The fact of the matter is that there are many unfair laws affecting debt collectors, and sadly, these laws don’t show any hope of being repealed soon, so debt collectors have to abide by them. Hopefully, in the future, however, the laws will change to respect the rights of not just consumers and debtors, but of the debt collectors as well.

Keys to Successful Telecom Collections

Telecom collections representatives do not have an easy job. They have to constantly concern themselves with meeting the ever-changing compliance regulations, as well as with keeping each

individual client happy. With that said, however, there are other things, things just as important as compliance, that modern day debt collectors in the telecom collections industry need to concern themselves with. These things will be covered below and should be given the utmost attention.

Data Security

To begin with, all debt collection agencies and the collectors themselves should be concerned with data security. Debt collectors are privy to a great deal of sensitive information, information that, if placed into the wrong hands, could mean serious consequences for the involved consumer.

As such, debt collectors need to maintain extreme privacy and discretion regarding the information they have been entrusted with. Furthermore, debt collection agencies, as a whole, need to have strong and clear security measures in place that enable them to be a true trusted partner to telecom businesses.

All companies should have the proper security certifications in place as well as other security measures, measures which can be easily detailed if requested, to protect consumers, as well as the businesses collection agencies are working with.

Modern Technology

While attention to detail and concern for everyone’s safety and privacy are paramount in the telecom collections realm, it is also imperative for collectors to have the right, most up to date technologies.

These should include TCPA compliant dialing systems, modern speech analytics programs to monitor and review calls, as well as emotional analytics to ensure a sense of calm and professionalism is always maintained during collections communications.

Debt collectors without the correct technologies run the risk of violating TCPA rules and general compliance standards. They also will not be able to provide the best possible service and protection to the consumers and clients they work with.

Skip Tracing

All debt collectors are also encouraged to utilize skip tracing programs, programs which enable them to find other possible phone numbers for consumers when the person’s original phone number suddenly becomes unavailable.

While there are programs that will find a wide range of potential phone numbers, it is usually smarter for debt collectors to choose more discerning programs. These programs may contain fewer potential phone number matches, but the matches are typically based on more rigorous criteria, making them more likely to be correct and helping debt collectors to avoid the potential breech of privacy they may commit by calling the wrong person about someone else’s account.

Physical Security

As mentioned, security of data is incredibly important for modern telecom collections. However, true physical security is just as important, and, in fact, good physical security measures will reinforce all data security measures.

Collections facilities should have controlled access to the general building as well as to parts of the building where sensitive information is stored. Video surveillance is also a smart addition that can improve physical security.

Obviously, there are many things that modern collection agencies must consider in order to be successful, but these are some of the most vital.

Consumer Complaints and the Need for Improvement

The Association of Credit and Collection Agencies (ACA International) is one of the few agencies out there that advocates for and on behalf of collection agencies. Unfortunately, though debt collectors are just doing their jobs and trying to collect money that is owed to their clients, they are the ones treated like criminals in terms of the law, while the debtors, people who have defaulted on their bills, get all the rights. Debt collectors have long recognized the unfairness of this view but, in order to stay in business, have followed the laws established by federal protection acts.

And, while they still have to follow these rules, someone is, finally, speaking up on their behalf. That someone is not a person but an organization, namely the aforementioned ACA International. This organization is now seeking to establish a more fair Consumer Complaint Database that will consider the wellbeing of collection agencies as well as consumers and that will thus be more fair and more accurate in all of its reportings.   

Thanks to a recent inspection from the Office of the Inspector General, the organization has found many areas in which it can improve. These include, but are not limited to, configuration management, security control, management control, access control, and audit logging. If these areas are improved upon, as suggested, it could mean better and more accurate complaint logging for everyone concerned, including and especially consumer collection agencies, whose rights are all too often overlooked.

In fact, an audit was performed by the Office of the Inspector General as recently as September 2015, and it found several areas that could be improved upon. And, as a result of that audit, ACA International is “stepping up its game,” so to speak.

With the new measures that ACA International is seeking to put in place, it should be easier to determine how many complaints are actually coming from an original source. For example, it is not uncommon for disgruntled consumers to sometimes log multiple complaints against a collection agency, often under different names, to give the agency a much worse reputation than it deserves. New security measures, however, could prevent this kind of thing from happening. Furthermore, new security measures could also limit who has access to filed complaints; after all, it’s not fair for consumers and others to see complaints when they are still being investigated and have not yet been resolved.

All of the new measures could spell potential help for collections agencies, which are often unfairly targeted by guilty consumers looking to place their shame for not being able to pay their bills elsewhere. While it’s not likely that federal laws will ever be fully established in the favor of collection agencies-after all, the goal of such laws is to protect the consumer, at the very least, these measures could help to protect them from unfair and inaccurate complaints, and that, at least, is progress. Nobody ever said the debt collection business was easy, but with measures like these in effect, at least the playing field can get a little more fair.

What Collectors Need to Know About Caller ID

Since the invention of caller ID, debt collectors have had a much harder time getting in touch with their delinquent clients. There’s a tendency among debtors to just ignore collection phone calls, and that’s pretty easy to do when they can instantly tell who is calling and thus make a decision about whether or not to answer the phone.   

Nowadays, a lot of debt collectors get around this little dilemma by choosing to alter their company name or by making their numbers “private” on caller IDs. However, depending on where you operate, this may or may not be allowed by state law, so always check to be sure you are within your legal rights before you make the decision to obscure any identifying information.

Displaying a false name is rarely allowed, though an abbreviated name typically is allowed. Again, though, laws do vary from state to state, and some states require that a company identify itself by its full and legal name. Because the laws can vary so much, it is extremely important to obey the law for the area in which your business is located and the area or areas which you will be calling. Not doing so could land your debt collection business in serious hot water!

Another strategy many debt collectors will try in order to make debtors more likely to pick up the phone is to change their area code to the local area code of the person whom they are calling.For this reason, many debt collection agencies actually own and use several different phone numbers. While there have been some cases in which the Federal Trade Commission has found this practice to be unfair, the practice is allowed as long as the company actually owns that number and as long as the debt collection agency can be reached by dialing that number.

If you’d prefer not to have any information about your company or your number displayed when you attempt to reach debtors, that is allowed by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. If you choose this option, when you call consumers, your number will appear as “private” or “unavailable.” Of course, you do run some risk of not being able to make contact with this option since many people simply won’t answer blocked phone calls, but it is a good choice if you’ve tried all other ways to reach a consumer with no luck. Plus, some consumers will finally pick up the phone out of curiosity, and then they’ll have to talk with you.

Debt collection is a tough job, and it is one that is made even more difficult thanks to the popularity of caller IDs. However, as you can see, there are many workarounds that can potentially make it easier for you to contact clients and actually get them to respond. You just have to operate within the bounds of the law to protect yourself and your business.

Interested in Debt Collections?

Are you interested in becoming a debt collector? There are many reasons why you might consider this career path. First of all, being a debt collector gives you the freedom to run your business and make money from home. Plus, all you really have to do is find customers and then work for them to collect their debts. Pretty simple, right? If you’re seriously thinking about making this the career for you, just follow a few basic tips.

Gain Experience First

The first and most important thing for you to do is to gain experience in the debt collection field. You don’t want to just start your own business without any training or real-world experience, so try getting a job at a professional debt collection agency first. Not only will this provide a way for you to earn experience, but it will also help you to decide whether this truly is the job for you or not.

Get the Necessary Education

In addition to having the right hands-on experience, you will also need to gain education and official training. A high school diploma is generally required for working at a professional debt collection firm. You should also take advantage of online training options, certifying organizations, and other training and educational opportunities that will assist you as you embark on this exciting career journey.

A World of Opportunity

Once you’ve completed all the necessary steps to become a debt collector and are employed, whether through a firm or your own business, you will find that all kinds of great opportunities and benefits await you. Debt collection is a constantly growing profession, so you’ll enjoy great job security and, as long as you do your job well, you should never want for clients. You’ll also enjoy regular interaction with others  and a great deal of freedom in when and how you work.

If you’re ready to become  a debt collector, there’s no better time to start working toward your goal than the present!