When you hire a debt collection agency to act on your behalf to collect severely overdue accounts, the agency puts into action a streamlined process which works in the majority of cases. As a result, the debt will be made good and you will receive your money back, less a percentage reduction as fees for the work of the collection agency.

Essentially, this process is one of negotiation. The company will remind the debtor of the facts and seek to open up a dialogue with the debtor. What they want is for the debtor to respond meaningfully to them.

Ideally, a debtor will respond positively, whether by paying the debt in full or agreeing and sticking to a scheduled repayment plan. Either way, the collection agency has scored a success. More rarely, a debtor may refuse to pay and the collection agency may have to submit a poor credit report to the major credit agencies or take the debtor to court to force cooperation. This is regrettable, but necessary.

Collection agencies work within a legal framework and do their best to respect that framework which is there to ensure that the debtor is properly informed of the facts of the case, of their rights to dispute a debt and their rights to privacy, both with regards to the debt and with regards to how and when the agency communicates with them. In short, they will adhere to the legal framework of fair debt collection.

Tristan Andrews is a writer for Collection Agency Quotes.