Hiring a debt collection agency is a vendor decision that directly affects your bottom line. The right choice recovers money. The wrong one wastes time and may damage customer relationships.
Contingency model: No cure, no pay. Agencies that charge upfront fees or retainers have less incentive to recover.
Jurisdictional expertise: Can they name the specific court procedure in the debtor's country? If not, they're generalists.
Native language: Do they have agents who speak the debtor's language natively? Translated letters produce poor results.
Track record: Request recovery rates by jurisdiction and claim age. Audited results, not marketing claims.
Upfront fees for amicable collection. Vague descriptions of "international network" without naming specific countries or partners. No case management portal. Unable to explain the legal procedure in the debtor's jurisdiction. Commission rates below 10% (usually means hidden fees elsewhere).
What is your recovery rate for claims in [debtor's country] placed within 90 days? Who handles the claim locally? What happens if amicable collection fails? What are the court costs in the debtor's jurisdiction? How do I track progress?
Our debt recovery agency with over 21 years of experience provides: Business to Business Collections Services, Legal Debt Collections and worldwide Skip Tracing services.
