Collection Agency Credit Checks5441858

A collection agency is a company that arranges for payment of money owed by a person or another company to another person or company. It is a third-party organization that helps lenders to obtain repayment in a faster and easier way. Many lenders use collection agencies for various reasons: they are too small to have their own collection departments, they lack the expertise to collect payments, they want faster results, or they just want to protect their images. Collection agencies are regulated by the Collection Agencies Act.

Credit checks are done by lending companies such as banks and credit card companies to determine the credit worthiness of an applicant. Credit checks give a credit score, which indicates a person's financial creditworthiness. It is used to verify whether the person qualifies for a loan, or any other credit, based on whether he has repaid his past loans satisfactorily. A credit score is used by banks and other lending companies for estimating how risky the borrower is. In other words, a credit report is a reflection of the past credit history of an individual. Once a year, an individual can obtain his credit record for free from each of the three consumer reporting companies in the U.S.: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. This is monitored by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

A credit record contains useful information like credit card account, bankruptcy details, court judgments, mortgages, car loans, student loans, utility company accounts, and reports from collection agencies.

Collection agencies do credit checks to determine how to obtain payment from the borrower. This includes a check of the person's credit reports, financial statements, and letters of credit. The usual tactics used by a collection agency to recover payments are sending collection letters, making phone calls, notifying credit-reporting bureaus such as Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion, and finally, litigation. Some collection agencies also resort to violence. However, such practices are unlawful and are regulated by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which gives a list of what a collection agency can and cannot do credit check