A lot of businesses or creditors are a bit apprehensive about hiring a professional debt collection agency to recover their unpaid or overdue accounts. We understand this concern. You want to maintain a relationship with your clients, and the added cost can seem disconcerting at first. But having a debt collector on your side can actually help you keep that relationship positive – a good agency will understand the relationships you have with each client and adapt their approach accordingly. This means that your overdue invoices can be successfully recovered, and you can still maintain those client relationships (if you wish to). So when you’re choosing a debt collection agency in the UK, make sure you choose the right kind of agency for you.

Types Of Debt Collection Agencies In The UK

There are many debt collection agencies in the UK. Some of them are part of, or fronted by huge companies. Some of them are actually based in America, the Philippines, India or Poland. And some of them are smaller agencies based in the UK, as independent businesses looking to offer higher quality service.

The larger organisations are focussed on handling a high volume of accounts from a small number of clients, which means they usually work exclusively for banks, credit card companies or utility businesses. These kinds of agencies won’t work with a business who can’t pass them a high volume of collections every month or year, and so generally won’t be visible to businesses at SME, small or micro business level. Their approach will likely be different as well, since the relationship between the debtor and the creditor will be virtually non-existent and the creditor will have likely written off the debt before passing it on to the collection agency.

Then there are agencies who deal solely with debts they have bought. These are known as debt purchasers, and they will purchase the debt from large organisations like high street banks, credit card companies and payday loan companies. They will sometimes pay only a penny to the pound, or maybe slightly more for the debt, which they will then own. These agencies make a profit by then recovering more money from the debtor than they paid for the debt. The original creditor for the debt, having sold the debt on, will not have any interest in the debts recovery, or maintaining relationships with the debtors in the future.

And finally, there are specialist debt collection agencies like us, who help and support all sorts of different businesses. Some of these agencies may only cover certain areas (like oil and gas or sizes of business (like SME’s), or they could be general debt collection agencies. These types of agency offer a very personal service for the creditor, but also for the debtor. They understand that the creditors in this space will often want to preserve these relationships, and so will adjust their approach based on each debtor as they happen. This means they usually experience a high success rate, since they can focus their attentions on each individual case instead of dealing with high volumes. They are usually small to medium sized agencies themselves, which again allows them to really personalise their services to your needs.

How To Choose A Debt Collection Agency

So, now that you know the different kinds of agency, how do you choose the right one for you? Well, thankfully the first step is simple – if you are a bank, credit card company, utility provider or payday loan business, you probably want one of the first two. If you’re any other kind of business, you want option number three. But there are still a lot of options out there for the smaller agencies, so here’s a few things to consider when choosing an agency:

• It’s best to choose an agency that is well established and has been trading for a number of years
• Trustworthy agencies will work on a no collection, no fee basis
• Ask to see a copy of their terms and conditions, and make sure there are no hidden fees
• Check that they are registered with the Financial Conduct Authority, who regulate the debt collection industry

At Debtcol, we specialise in helping SME’s and larger businesses to collect their debts while still maintaining those crucial client relationships. We take the time to get to know your business, and the circumstances around each individual debt. This approach means we have a higher success rate in recovering debts, because we can tailor our approach to the situation as needed. For more information, just get in touch with the team at Debtcol today.