Can It Be More Effective To Go For a D I Y Approach To Debt Collection Instead Of Using A Debt Collection Agency?

It could be a fair assumption that at some time in its existence a business would discover one or more unpaid invoices and would have to either try and recoup the debt or write it off. Depending on the size of the business and the size of the debt, and to some extent the frequency of this happening, the business may do their own Debt Collection, including sending out Debt Collection Letters and generally chasing the debtor. A small business may invest in Debt Collection Software to help them with the process. If the business is loathe to sanction this work by themselves then they may well choose to pass the Debt Collection over to a specialist agency.

If the business decides to go down the DIY route then they should do some checking first to discover what help is available to them in this Debt Collection process, also to try and ascertain how successful this route has proven to be for others, hopefully with examples of the value of debt and what was recovered. Hopefully in this way they should go into the Debt Collection process with some confidence. They should allocate enough resources of time, money and people to the Debt Collection activities, which can vary from writing and posting Debt Collection Letters, phone calls to taking serious steps such as talking to a solicitor if the Debt Collection process has failed so far and legal action seems the only option.

Once the business has discovered how to do their own Debt Collection they may well find that only a few bad debts justify legal proceedings.

The solicitor will require evidence of the business having undertaken the Debt Collection process to some extent already and this is an area where Debt Collection Software can be a help. There are many such programs available but what should be high on the shopping list of features is the ability to enter key events and to automatically produce Debt Collection Letters. The function to record phone calls as audio files would be so useful and much better than a typed version of the phone call from memory some time later. The function to produce an actions report which could show the date and time of actions and a short summary of what happened would be very useful in demonstrating the chain of events that brought about the legal proceedings. In terms of assessing the Debt Collection Software it is useful if a free demo version could be used first to get a feel for its suitability to the work in hand. These are usually a cut down version which has some options disabled from the full version. A cut down version may allow the composition of Debt Collection Letters but may not permit them to be printed out, or it may permit Debt Collection Letters to be printed but may watermark the paper with some text such as “Draft” or “Unlicensed” in order to make the letter useless.

If the business decides not to use the DIY process they may well search for a Debt Collection organization to do the job for them. In searching for such a business their track record and success rate in recovering debts would be useful to know, as well as the obvious question of costs, such as is there a fixed fee or is it a percentage of the debt, or then again is it no win no fee.