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Clients: Want to Signup For Service
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Existing
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Questions about
signing up for service
Questions about our procedures
Questions about collecting bad checks
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| Questions
about signing up for service: |
| Are there any sign-up charges
to use Americollect? |
| How does Americollect get paid? |
| How long has
Americollect been in business? |
| How do I sign-up for Americollect's
service? |
| Does
Americollect's contract have a specified
time length? |
| Do
I need to tell the debtor I am listing
their account with Americollect? |
| What
should I do if a debtor calls me to
complain about being listed with Americollect? |
| Why use a collection agency? |
| Can I
list an account of a person who has
filed bankrupt? |
| What information
do you need to list an account? |
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| Questions
about our procedures: |
| Is there a minimum
amount you will accept? |
| How much work do
you do on small balances? |
| Can
I list an account without an address
or good phone number? |
| Can Americollect collect
a disputed debt? |
| How long will
it take you to collect my money? |
| How do we know
if you have collected any money? |
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| Questions
about collecting bad checks: |
| How can I list my bad checks? |
| Can
you collect my bank charge for depositing
a bad check? |
| Can you collect
account closed checks? |
| How can I earn
a Rebate from Americollect? |
| Can
you list the checks with the District
Attorney's Office? |
| Do you offer check guarantee? |
| Do you offer check verification? |
| Do you offer
electronic check re-presentment? |
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| Are
there any sign-up charges? |
| No.
Signing up for our service is as simple
as opening a checking account. |
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| How
do you get paid? |
| We only
get paid when we are successful collecting
the accounts you give us. We
earn our commission on payments
made the day after we send out our
first notice. |
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| What
information do you need to list an
account? |
| It depends
on the type of an account: This is
our wish list: name of responsible
party(s), address, phone number(s),
employer, date of birth, SS#, driver’s
license #, patient name, date of service,
amount owed, copy of charges. For
medical providers we can provide you
with a HIPAA minimum- necessary list.
The more information we have, the
more likely we are to collect. |
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|
Can
I list an account of a person who
has filed bankrupt? |
| Generally,
no. You can list accounts where the
charges were incurred after the date
they filed bankrupt.
If you have any questions, please
contact us. |
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| How
do we know if you have collected any
money? |
| At the
end of each month, we will send you
a check for the amount money we have
collected. We are able to remit
to you more often if necessary.
Our fees can be billed or taken out
of the money we have collected.
You can also see debtor payments to
your accounts as soon as they have
been posted through Americollect's
WebLink. Call Americollect today
at 1-800-838-0100 to get a login and
password! |
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| ^Top |
| Why
use a collection agency? |
| Many
consumers will pay Americollect instead
of the original creditor because they
are concerned about their credit rating
and legal action. We also have more
tools to track your consumers down
if they skip. Many of our clients
like outsourcing the accounts receivable
because they simply do not have the
time to do quality follow up. |
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| How
long will it take you to collect my
money? |
| We cannot
guarantee a time frame. We collect
many accounts in the first 30 to 60
days. Some consumers that are
skips or are financially unable to
pay at this time are tracked and followed
until the statute of limitations per
your state. The amount of work
that is done on your account depends
on the amount of the account and profitability. |
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| Can
you collect a disputed debt? |
| If your
debtor disputes your debt, we must
validate the debt by sending a copy
of the charges. We will communicate
the nature of the dispute with you
if we cannot resolve it ourselves.
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| Is there a minimum amount you will
accept? |
| No.
If you think it is worth your time,
we will work the account. We
love small balances. Our Call Blending Predictive Dialer
allows us to make many phone calls
on your accounts. Many agencies
only send a notice or two on balances
under $100.00. Because of our
technology, we can make phone calls
more inexpensively than sending notices.
Phone calls are much more effective
than sending a notices that may go
unread. |
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| How
much work do you do on small balances? |
| Our
Call Blending Predictive Dialer
allows us to make many phone calls
on your accounts. Many agencies
only send a notice or two on balances
under $100.00. Because of our
technology, we can make phone calls
more inexpensively than sending notices.
Phone calls are much more effective
than sending a notices that may go
unread. We don't give up easily! |
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| Can I list an account
without an address or good phone number? |
|
Yes. Many times we will have information
on the consumer in our database
or we can use skip-tracking tools
at Americollect to help find them.
It is important to give us as much
information as you can when you
list the account, even if the information
is not good any more. With more
information we are more likely to
find the skip. |
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| How
long has Americollect been in business? |
| Americollect
has been in business since 1964. Collecting
bad debt is Americollect’s only
business. John Steimle and Roger Shavlik
started the business as Manitowoc
Collection Service. Later the name
was changed to Americollect to better
reflect our growth. In 1999 Kenlyn
T. Gretz, Americollect’s collection
manager since 1987, purchased the
business from Steimle when Steimle
retired. |
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| How
do I sign up for Americollect's service? |
|
Americollect has a simple two-page
contract that is a "standard"
collection agency contract. The
contract has been approved by the
Department of Financial Institutions
of the State of Wisconsin. Just
contact us at 1-800-838-0100 or
collector@americollect.com
and we will send you a copy of our
contracts. |
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| Does Americollect’s
contract have a specified length of
time? |
| No.
You can cancel our service at any
time. We would like a 30 day
notice. All accounts that are
not in the middle of collection are
canceled back to you. |
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| ^Top |
| How
can I list my bad checks? |
| We
would like the original bad check.
You can either mail bad checks to
our office when you get them back
from your bank or you can have your
bank send them directly to Americollect.
The latter method is called Direct
Bank. When we receive the check writer's
returned check from your bank, we
send/fax/email you a copy of the check
and an acknowledgement. You have the
choice of whether you want that check
listed with Americollect. If you call
us within 5 days, we will not list
the check and you can collect it any
way you please. There is no
charge from Americollect to have a
check sent back to you. This
allows you to stop "good" customers
from being listed with our office.
We have a standard form to instruct
your bank to send all returned checks
to Americollect. Most of our
clients like Direct Bank because
it keeps the check collection process
moving instead of allowing the checks
to pile up. The older the checks,
the harder they are to collect.
If you sign up for Direct Bank,
you may be eligible for our Rebate Program. |
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| Can
you collect my bank charge for depositing
a bad check? |
| Yes.
We add it on to the service fee
if your state law allows us to.
You get 100% of the face amount
of the check and your verified bank
charge when we collect. Americollect
earns the service fee. |
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| How
can I earn a Rebate from Americollect? |
| We
offer a Rebate Program to
our CheckCollect clients.
If you choose the Direct Bank method
of listing your checks with Americollect,
we will rebate money when we collect
the check and service fee.
The amount of the rebate is usually
$5.00 per check collected.
Contact us at 1-800-838-0100 or
collector@americollect.com
to get more details. |
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| Can
you collect account closed checks? |
| Yes.
We will collect any type of returned
checks. |
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| ^Top |
| Can
you list the checks with the District
Attorney's Office? |
| No.
We cannot directly. We will
cancel the checks back to you and
give you the information about the
case number, the name of the police
department and/or officer handling
the case if we learn of a criminal
prosecution. There is no charge
to cancel a check when you are pursuing
criminal prosecution. |
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| Do
you offer check guarantee? |
| No.
Not currently. Our software
has the module to offer check guarantee.
We hope to offer this product in
the future. There are Pro's
and Con's to check guarantee; it's
not right for everyone. We
can, however, put you in contact
with a vendor. Please contact
us to hear the Pro's and Con's before
you sign any contract. You
may be paying for more "bad check
insurance" than you need. |
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| Do
you offer check verification? |
| No.
Not currently. Our software
has the module to offer check verification.
We hope to offer this product in
the future. There are Pro's
and Con's to check verification,
it's not right for everyone.
We can, however, put you in contact
with a vendor. Please contact
us to hear the Pro's and Con's before
sign you any contract. |
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| Do
you offer electronic check re-presentment? |
| Yes.
We call it e.deposit@americollect
. The service is extremely
simple to use. We represent
your NSF checks to the check writer's
account two additional times after
the paper deposit. This second
and third electronic re-deposits
will decrease the amount of NSF
checks. |
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| Do
I need to tell the debtor I am listing
their account with Americollect?
|
| No.
There is no requirement to notify
the consumer that you are listing
him or her for collection. In some
cases it is a good idea not to.
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| What
should I do if a debtor calls me to
complain about being listed with Americollect? |
| Let
the consumer know you wish they
would have worked with you and that
you can help them out. We do not
list an account on the consumer's
credit file for at least the first
30 days. Let the consumer know you
will call Americollect and ask us
to hold this from their credit file
if they can pay the balance by X
date. This makes you out to be the
"good cop." Get the consumer’s
phone number and address and give
us a call. Another option is to
just let the consumer know that
it is out of your hands and he or
she must deal with Americollect.
Get his or her contact information
to Americollect and we will contact
that person. |
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