September 2009 Blog Posts (43)

Network Banks on Non-Savvy Financial Females for Ratings

A new reality series is kicking off tonight centered on better financing. Specifically, females buried under debt will undergo financial boot camps on Bank of Mom and Dad, with their parents serving as drill sergeants.

From the website:

“Each week, one twenty-something woman who is drowning in debt must pay the ultimate price: having her parents move in. With the assistance of… Continue

Added by Accounts Recovery on September 30, 2009 at 1:30pm — No Comments

NY AG Files Criminal Charges Against 12 Collectors

New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo today announced he filed criminal charges against 12 employees of several Buffalo-area debt collection companies. The employees allegedly posed as law enforcement officials and threatened to have consumers thrown in jail unless they immediately paid off the debts that they supposedly owed.

The individuals charged were:

Tina Almond, 30, of Marsdale Road, Cheektowaga

Marcus Brown, 32, of Hoyt Street, Buffalo

Andrew Brzyski,… Continue

Added by Accounts Recovery on September 30, 2009 at 10:30am — 2 Comments

eBureau Scores $10m

Risk-management company eBureau just got some love, securing $10 million in venture capital from Tenaya Capital, Redpoint Ventures and Split Rock Partners.

For eBureau, this means expanded sales and marketing activities, and further product innovation, according to Gordy Meyer, president and chief executive of eBureau.

“Our investment demonstrates confidence in eBureau’s management team, the direction the company is taking and the opportunity at hand,” said Ben Boyer,… Continue

Added by Accounts Recovery on September 30, 2009 at 10:00am — No Comments

Financial Recoveries chooses Intelitech Group's Acumen!

Financial Recoveries Looks to The Intelitech Group’s Acumen! Business Analytics Suite to Strengthen Collection Services

New Jersey agency picks Acumen! suite to improve debt recovery decision making and boost its clients’ bottom line

Vancouver, Wash. – September 29, 2009 - The Intelitech Group, a business consulting practice and technology solutions provider for the collection industry, announced today that Financial Recoveries, a Mount Laurel, NJ… Continue

Added by Tom McHale on September 29, 2009 at 3:09pm — No Comments

Liability Insurance

I was wondering if you guys could help me. I was trying to price E&O insurance and it seems ridiculously expensive for a little guy.

Can someone explain other choices they use that may be helpful and reasonable for a small operation of a few people, and also how as an LLC I am protected.

Thank you
Nick

Added by Nicholas Dunec on September 28, 2009 at 5:13pm — No Comments

Compliance - Software or Education

As technology vendors we seek to enable our end users with the most complete packages. This comment was taken from Douglas Jacobsen's thread enquiring about best software for his startup.

It poses an interesting debate : Where is the line drawn

Comment by Stephen G. Florczak on September 25, 2009 at 2:39pm

Excellent list Jeremy. I would add one topic to the checklist. Will the software(or even vendors in general) be in compliance with Federal and State restrictions?… Continue

Added by Robert Rutherford on September 28, 2009 at 11:04am — 7 Comments

Russian Utilities Use TV As Shaming Tool

In most cases, if your name makes it on the evening news, chances are you did something bad to deserve it.

In Russia, the list of atrocities that get your name on TV now includes not paying your electric bill.

Utilities are submitting names of delinquent debtors to television stations. Of course, this begs the question: If I didn't pay my electric bill, how do I know if my name… Continue

Added by Michael Gibb on September 25, 2009 at 10:03am — No Comments

Collection Agency Software

I am a Debt Buyer and I have just received my final Collection Agency license. What is the best software for an Agency that will collect about 1,000 to 2,000 new accounts per month? Thank you all

Added by Douglas Jacobsen on September 24, 2009 at 2:37pm — 14 Comments

Wells Fargo Expands Mobile Payment Services

Wells Fargo & Company is zooming even more on mobile payments by announcing today that its customers can transfer cash to one another using the Wells Fargo Retail Mobile Banking service.

There are a couple of stipulations, however.

The transaction must first start online, not from a mobile phone. To begin, customers must log-on to their online banking account, and add the account number of whom they wish to… Continue

Added by Accounts Recovery on September 24, 2009 at 12:30pm — No Comments

Final Agenda Set for 2010 CTS

The final agenda has been set for the 2010 Collection Technology Summit.

The agenda includes sessions on disaster recovery, compliance, IT security, and a roundtable of CMS vendors. Additionally, dozens of vendors will demo their products during Technology Spotlights.

The agenda was developed through an interactive process that originated on CollectionTechnology.net and included… Continue

Added by Accounts Recovery on September 24, 2009 at 11:00am — 5 Comments

Startup Tells Users What Businesses Will Pay Up

Learn your recession lesson: Credit scores don’t always live up to expectations.

Enter Cortera Credit Exchange, a new startup that wants to tell its users the likelihood of a business paying the tab by blending credit report data with user generated payment experience reviews and ratings from companies’ business partners. Data comes from credit exchanges, public records, company-published records, financial documents, manual… Continue

Added by Accounts Recovery on September 23, 2009 at 3:00pm — 1 Comment

Tech Tidbit: The Power of Scoring

I had an interesting conversation with Brian Riley, a senior analyst at TowerGroup, the other day about security broadly, PCI DSS specifically, and what collection agencies should focus on even more specifically.

For Riley, scoring accounts well is one of the most critical strategies, which means paying attention to the recession's trajectory.

"It's kind of counterintuitive," Riley says. "Some of the older accounts may be more collectible now."

This is because… Continue

Added by Accounts Recovery on September 23, 2009 at 12:00pm — No Comments

Premier site for Locating Assets & Place of Employment.

Starcast Group (www.starcastgroup.com) is the premier site for Attorneys, Banks,Lenders, Investigators and Judgment creditors who are looking for assets throughout the Nation.

$50 Bank Account Locates!!!

No Hit, No Fee!! 100% FDCPA & GLB Compliant.

We give volume discounts!!!

YOU PAY FOR RESULTS! NO HIT NO FEE! WHICH MEANS, NO PERFORMANCE = NO $$$.

Our success rate for locating bank accounts is between 20% to 50% and 5 to 10% for

employment… Continue

Added by Kevin Novack on September 23, 2009 at 11:28am — No Comments

Columbia Ultimate to Partner with CBCInnovis

Finding debtors is the name of the debt collection game.

And to try to further help its users do just that, Columbia Ultimate is teaming up with risk management services provider CBCInnovis to integrate its skiptracing solution.

“Integrating our collection software with CBCInnovis’ RPC skiptracing solution enables our clients to find the freshest… Continue

Added by Accounts Recovery on September 22, 2009 at 4:30pm — No Comments

The Cortera Credit Exchange – Commercial Credit Information Set Free

What a great day at DEMOfall 09! Today, we unveiled a fundamentally new approach to commercial credit reports by adding the real-time voice of the business community. Are you a small business owner? A finance manager at a Fortune 500 company? Or a veteran credit pro at a company somewhere in between? The Cortera Credit Exchange might just be the information solution you’ve been looking for.

Credit Decisions are Now Social

Join the first community dedicated to making the flow of… Continue

Added by Alex Cote on September 22, 2009 at 3:00pm — No Comments

Cortera Brings Crowdsourcing to Commercial Credit Reports

It’s official. We are excited to announce the first community-driven approach to commercial credit reporting. Business decision makers from small business owners to senior executives of large corporations can now leverage the collective insights of the entire credit community. Using familiar ratings and reviews features popularized on sites like Yelp, Amazon, and TripAdvisor, members can share payment experiences with other credit pros and business owners by writing their own reviews, while… Continue

Added by Alex Cote on September 22, 2009 at 2:30pm — No Comments

On the Move - Week of 9/21

- Carolyn Y. Sauls has joined RMI Consulting, LLC as manager of recovery services. Sauls has held various collections and supervisory positions for more than 20 years at NCO.

- Ed Broyles has been named managing director for North America at Adeptra. Broyles has more than 30 years experience working at large companies throughout the banking and credit industries.

To include personnel changes to "On the Move," email… Continue

Added by Accounts Recovery on September 22, 2009 at 10:00am — No Comments

On Demo: Tool Tackles Doc Management

Document management is one of those tasks that seem simple enough, but the reality of such organization is usually annoyance. Not everyone is a former library page after all, and those docs pile up like mad, especially in certain industries like collections.

To help simplify the process without converting one’s personality, Automated Collection Control, Inc. rolled out… Continue

Added by Accounts Recovery on September 22, 2009 at 9:00am — 1 Comment

FDCPA and Other Consumer Rights Lawsuit Statistics, September 1-15, 2009

Grand Rapids, MI (September 21, 2009) – FDCPA Lawsuit Statistics. This service is provided to the ARM industry courtesy of WebRecon LLC.

There were about 424 lawsuits filed under consumer statutes in the first half of September (down a bit due to the Labor Day holiday). Here is an approximate breakdown:

* 346 Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

* 39 Fair Credit Reporting Act

* 2 Telephone Consumer Protection Act

* 14 Truth In Lending Act

* 1… Continue

Added by Jack Gordon on September 21, 2009 at 2:30pm — 2 Comments

Yahoo to Rebrand

Yahoo wants to be an online contender. And is striving to do just that by launching a new marketing campaign, which will include a new tagline: “It’s You!" according to The Wall Street Journal.

Jessica E. Vascellaro writes:

"The global campaign is focused on personalization and how Yahoo can help people navigate all their services and information online, according to… Continue

Added by Accounts Recovery on September 21, 2009 at 9:30am — No Comments