Bankruptcy or Settlement?

NZ Blacklist Superior debt collection solutions www.NZBLACKLIST.com

(MADISON, Wis.)—A recent analysis found the number of Americans filing for bankruptcy continues to rise. The Association of Settlement Companies (TASC) today reminds consumers who are struggling to pay off their unsecured debt that debt settlement remains a reliable tool for relief, especially when compared to taking the dramatic step of filing for bankruptcy.

According to a report from Automated Access to Court Electronic Records, bankruptcy filings in the United States now exceed 6,000 per day. Reputable debt settlement companies such as those that are a part of TASC—a non-profit watchdog for the industry—can help consumers avoid being a part of that statistic. One reason is that debt settlement companies can often negotiate with creditors to settle for less than the full amount owed.

“Every day the debt settlement industry assists consumers in navigating through their financial straits,” Chris Kesterson, president of TASC, said. “Our staff members are knowledgeable and experienced in working with creditors, who are willing to take a settlement over getting nothing with bankruptcy.”

Debt settlement provides consumers with a three-year plan to get out of debt without the 10-year stain of bankruptcy on their credit report. Bankruptcy also is time-intensive and can be difficult to apply for, if a consumer even qualifies, Kesterson added.

To illustrate debt settlement as a growing choice over bankruptcy, TASC revealed recently that the industry returned more than $2.2 billion in consumer debt last year. In addition, TASC’s research shows more than $500 million in settlement funds saved by consumers are available to credit card companies today.

Debt Collection, Debt Collectors, Bad Debt Recovery, Terms of Trade, Credit Reporting, Legal Services, Skip Tracing, Tracing and Investigative Services

Path of Debt

NZ Blacklist Superior debt collection solutions www.NZBLACKLIST.com

Consumers are beginning to borrow again which means they are ending up down the debt path again, according to Unbiased.co.uk.

David Elms, chief executive of the comparison website, made his comments following news that people borrowed nearly double in the second quarter of 2009 than they did in the first quarter.

He pointed out that 2008 saw many people repaying much of their debt because of the financial turmoil that went on, but that this trend has not continued.

“The first half of 2009, in contrast, has seen consumers head back down the debt path as they shift back into borrowing,” said Mr Elms.

In the same report it also showed that savings levels have increased from £14 billion to £21 billion in the same period.

Industry commentator Chris Tapp recently claimed that the price of debt has gone up, because people are finding it harder to get work in order to clear credit cards and loans.

Debt Collection, Debt Collectors, Bad Debt Recovery, Terms of Trade, Credit Reporting, Legal Services, Skip Tracing, Tracing and Investigative Services

Economic Recovery?

http://www.nzblacklist.com Superior debt collection solutions

SYDNEY – The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) believes it is “too soon” to be certain that the global economy is on the road to recovery, the central bank’s latest board minutes show.

The RBA left the cash rate unchanged at three per cent for the fifth straight meeting on September 1, as board members pondered whether a raft of local and overseas data presented over the previous month was confirmation of an economic recovery.

“Members concluded on balance that the global economy was most likely on a sustained, if modest, recovery path, though it was still too soon to be confident of this assessment,” the minutes said.

The minutes, published today, repeated comments from the August board meeting saying that if the improved prospects for economic growth were realised, the central bank would at some stage lift the cash rate from its current 49-year low.

“At the previous meeting, members had agreed that if the economy continued to evolve as in the latest forecasts, the Bank would in due course need to adopt a less expansionary policy stance,” the minutes said.

The information at this meeting suggested that economic conditions were indeed evolving broadly in that way.

“Nonetheless, some uncertainty remained about the outlook both abroad and at home.”
The minutes said information presented to board members at the meeting “showed that the situation in the global economy was continuing to improve”.

Gross domestic product (GDP) in the Asian region had been much stronger than elsewhere, while there were some “upside surprises” in countries such as Germany and France, the minutes said. Read more

Debt being paid of in record time!

NZ Blacklist, Superior Debt Collection Solutions www.nzblacklist.com
Inside Arm reports ;

U.S. consumers are paying off debt at a record pace as the recession lingers. In the past 11 months, nearly $70 billion has been erased from credit card balances, a trend that the ARM industry may need to watch.

Credit card debt outstanding in the United States has fallen by nearly $70 billion in less than a year and continues its downward spiral, according to a government report released yesterday.
The Federal Reserve said Tuesday that consumer credit outstanding in the U.S. declined by $21.5 billion in July, the largest monthly drop on record. The annualized rate of decline, 10.4 percent, was also the largest on record.


The Fed, in its monthly G.19 report on consumer debt, said that revolving debt – mostly credit cards – fell at an 8 percent annual rate in July, or by $6.1 billion. July marked the 11th straight month of declines in credit card debt.

In those 11 months, consumers have shed nearly $70 billion off credit card balances. Banks have also had a hand in the decline, tightening credit lines for their customers.


The trend is one that the accounts receivable management industry, particularly credit card collectors, will need to monitor, according to Mark Russell, director at ARM industry advisory firm Kaulkin Ginsberg.


“ARM companies that specialize in credit cards have been swamped with work this year,” Russell noted. “But if credit card debt continues to contract, there may be fewer accounts to work down the road.”


Collection agencies said that they had more work in the second quarter of 2009 in insideARM’s latest Quarterly Credit & Debt Collection Industry Confidence Survey. Of the collection agencies that said they specialized in financial services work (which includes credit cards), 63.4 percent reported an increase in account placements in the second quarter, up slightly from the 63 percent that answered the same way in the first quarter. But those numbers were significantly higher than the 53 percent that saw an increase in account placements in the second quarter of 2008.

In July, non-revolving debt – like that found in auto, student and personal loans – paced overall declines in consumer credit outstanding. The Fed said that non-revolving debt contracted by $15.4 billion, or at an annual rate of 11.7 percent. The G.19 report does not cover real estate loans.

The decline in non-revolving debt for July will likely prove to be an anomaly, as consumers probably held back on auto purchases for most of the month until the government’s “Cash for Clunkers” program was launched on July 24. As such, the Fed’s non-revolving debt in August is expected to show a significant increase. Student loans also began to roll out in earnest in August.

Taken overall, July’s drop was unexpected and far exceeded economists’ predictions. Economists had forecast consumer credit would drop $4 billion in July, according to the median of 31 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. Projections ranged from declines of $12 billion to no change from the previous month.

Total consumer debt outstanding in the U.S., excluding real estate loans, stood at $2.472 trillion at the end of July, down from its all-time high of $2.581 trillion at the end of July 2008.

Successfu small debt collection system in USA

NZ Blacklist, superior debt collection solutions www.nzblacklist.com

For companies with subscription or annuity-based business models, low balance collections have traditionally occupied the lowest position on the accounts payable totem pole.

That is, until now.

With the credit crisis driving companies to improve cash flow and revenues, Nashville, Tenn.-based Sitel Corp., a global Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) leader, recently demonstrated an innovative new service that substantially reduces small balance collection costs while increasing low balance collections overall.

The year-long demonstration at one of Sitel’s largest retail clients focused on collecting an average outstanding customer balance of only $33.07. Upon completion, the client cut average collection costs per customer by nearly 50 percent and increased the company’s annual collections by nearly $7 million.

“In this economy cash is king, and small balance collections in the $25 to $200 range represent a huge opportunity for retailers and other annuity-based companies,” says John Farinacci, COO of Sitel’s Accounts Receivable Division. “High balance collection is a very agent rich environment. But you can’t afford agents or a third party for small balances. You need a more affordable and effective way to collect, and that’s exactly what we’ve developed.”

New approach

Sitel’s Low Balance Collection Solution targets retail, financial services, utilities, communications, and media and entertainment companies with subscription, periodic payments, and/or repetitive payment business models.

By blending its global collections expertise with advanced interactive voice response (IVR) technologies, the service replaces the traditional series of small balance mailings — letters, post cards or email — with more affordable and effective interactive voice messaging. The solution provides a consistent, non-threatening customer care experience that allows the client to retain important customers while collecting a greater number of low balance payments early in the process.

“Studies have shown that most customers are comfortable with automated interactions,” Farinacci says. “That’s important because these are ongoing customer relationships and customer retention is obviously huge to a retailer. With this solution, we keep the customer experience high by allowing them to interact in a non-pressured environment.”

After providing a friendly reminder that a balance is due, the IVR technology allows the customer to pay all or part of the balance immediately, either through a touch-tone phone, connecting to a live agent, or the company Web site.

“Letters, post cards, email or SMS are fine for a basic notification, but IVR allows you to collect during the interaction and early in the collection process,” Farinacci explains. “The call might inform the customer that a bill has been sent and they have 20 days to pay it, or it might call attention that a balance is due or beyond due, or that a product hasn’t been returned. All they have to do is push a couple of buttons to pay the balance, opt out to an agent, or promise to pay on-line.”

Lower costs, improved collections

The demonstration project, which took place in 2008-2009, involved a large consumer facing organization with literally millions of subscription-based customers. Collection notification, agent interaction and balance delinquency costs were all significantly reduced, while cash flow and revenues got a lift.

First, Sitel transitioned the company away from its traditional post card and passive interactive voice strategy to the more effective automated, hosted and managed IVR system. That alone decreased the cost and number of transactions and saved the client roughly $400,000.

“Companies traditionally send their letters or post cards at specific intervals, but candidly, that is not very effective. At 5 to 8 cents a minute, the IVR call is not only more productive, but very inexpensive in comparison to a static post card, which translates to 35 to 45 cents per item, probably more,” Farinacci explains. “For the demonstration, we sent a letter at the outset, and then followed up with a series of IVR calls. We can make five calls at an average cost of 30 cents, while five mailings cost on average roughly $1.75.”

At the same time the solution generated some $2.9 million in additional collections, increasing the client’s overall liquidation rate by 4 percent. Since the IVR calls were so much more effective in generating early payments, the solution also decreased the number delinquencies that ended up in third party collection, with approximately $1.3 million in savings. Finally, the solution decreased the client’s roll rate by 3 percent as well as its days sales outstanding (DSO) and delinquency rates, resulting in a $2.1 million improvement in bad debt.

In summary, the company reduced its annual collection costs by $1.7 million and increased cash flow by $5 million, resulting in an overall return on investment of 8.5 percent, or $6.7 million.

With the current economic environment both creating an increase in low balance delinquencies and making it difficult (if not impossible) for companies to tap the capital markets, this new approach offers subscription or annuity-based businesses a viable way to boost cash flow and revenues.

“The small balance market has always been neglected because the balance threshold does not work under traditional methods,” Farinacci concludes. “This solution helps a company collect, collect early and collect effectively.”

Debt Busting Tips

NZ Blacklist www.nzblacklist.co.nz

The newspapers are telling us mortgagee sales are happening in record numbers, and there is no doubt some are finding the going tough. The problem is usually a familiar one – too much debt and too little savings. For many people who want to live with the jingle of coins in their pocket and no or low debt, choosing to live off the smell of an oily rag is the answer!

For those struggling under the weight of a mortgage here are some debt-busting oily rag tips : Read more

Online debt collection

A new service very similar to NZ Blacklist www.nzblacklist.com has taken the US by storm. Report as follows from PR Web:

All too often, small businesses find themselves with bad debt and little they can do about it. Due to the complicated nature of hiring a collection agency, many companies ignore their bad debt. Most of the problem is a lack of unbiased information to aid in finding a compatible or reputable collection agency. Forced to throw caution to the wind, companies blindly place their trust in whichever collection agency has the most convincing sales pitch. In the end, a lower percentage of bad debt is collected than if a best-fit collection agency had been selected.

CollectionTree.com changes all of this. Finally, someone is here to provide businesses access to a directory of collection agencies and enables them to make smart, effective decisions. CollectionTree.com starts by sharing agency ratings based on consumer responses and historical data so each business gets the strongest collection agency for their industry and amount of bad debt placed. After uploading their accounts to the CollectionTree.com secure portal, businesses can monitor the entire process from the easy-to-understand user interface and can also quickly communicate online with their collection agencies. What’s more, with every submitted account, CollectionTree.com generates a forecast to project how much collected money to expect.

This new online tool is created with the business owner in mind. CollectionTree.com removes the confusion and overwhelming attention associated with processing bad debt; at last, companies can get bad debt collected with confidence. Read more here

NZ Blacklist superior debt collection solutions

Debt Collection, Debt Collectors, Bad Debt Recovery, Terms of Trade, Credit Reporting, Legal Services, Skip Tracing, Tracing and Investigative Services