Don’t “run” from your creditors. In fact, the best course of action is to communicate with them and keep them posted as to your progress.

Make acceptable payment arrangements with your credit to keep your debt off credit bureau records.

Avoid allowing a debt to end up in litigation; this only compounds your financial problems.

Offer to settle your debts with creditors for a lump sum less than the total balance owed.

Find alternate ways of producing income including doing work for others that you know how to do and are good at.

Accept a temporary position or part time positions that pay less than you are accustomed to earning.

Avoid spending money eating out; instead re-connect with the pleasure of cooking at home.

Find alternate ways to provide entertainment for your family that cost less or are free.

Stay healthy by exercising and eating good foods thereby preventing the need for doctor’s visits. Exercise reduces stress. A calm mind thinks more clearly.

Explore the possibility of borrowing money from friends or relatives.

Carpool, turn your thermostat up whenever possible, turn off lights and conserve energy.

Contact charitable organizations or community resources available to financially disadvantaged families.

At SCS, we are placing a greater emphasis on finding ways to help you pay your debt and we are especially anxious to settle debts when our client agrees to the terms.

Hang in there; we’ll make it through this mess together.

Here are a few links for free medical care, food assistance, utility assistance

http://www.freemedicalcamps.com
http://www.azcc.gov/divisions/utilities/water/financial-aide.asp
http://www.hsd.maricopa.gov/

Sincerely,

Richard Bartlett, President

All of us feel the financial pressure that has been caused by the recent economic issues including the decline of housing values, job cuts and loss of values in our investments. At SCS, we want our clients and the individuals who may have debts owing to our clients, that we understand your difficulties. The majority of our clients are medical in nature and their patients often end up with unplanned obligations that hurt the pocket book.

We want you to know that our commitment is to treat every customer/patient who has been assigned to this office for collection with dignity and respect. It is our strong commitment to speak to you with courtesy and to listen to your issues and assist you in any way to avoid allowing a debt to become a long term part of your credit bureau record. We always respond to all calls requesting clarification of a debt and log every written request for validation, following up to make sure these request are answered. We make it a point to work with your attorney to resolve your obligation in a civil manner to everyone’s satisfaction.

We would like you to feel comfortable calling our representatives or speaking to them when you receive a call from our office. Also, our website and automated calling function enable you to pay your debt without the need to speak to a representative if you prefer. We welcome your feedback and look forward to assisting you with a hassle free transaction. These hard times will pass and we will all come out of this stronger.

Sincerely,

Richard Bartlett
Owner

At SCS, our philosophy and practice is that litigation is a last resort and we make every effort to assist an individual with an unpaid debt in making the right choice. In some situations, when elements combine to make litigation an obvious course of action, SCS will assist our clients with this process.

The elements we refer to are as follows: 1) the individual (debtor) must have a verified ability to pay the debt. 2) The balance involved must be sufficient to merit the initial expense of a lawsuit. 3) The debt itself must be indisputable and well documented.

SCS only proceeds with litigation with the express and written permission of our clients. In most cases, the client advances fees for service of summons, filing fees and court costs. Currently this cost averages $250.00 however when a judgment is rendered in favor of the client, these cost are born by the debtor and added to the principal along with interest from the date services were rendered. The contingency fee to our client increases to 40% in most cases as SCS is responsible for paying our attorney for litigation services.

In many cases, the judgment is obtained through default when the debtor fails to appear in court however even when the debtor does appear, there is substantial likelihood a judgment will be rendered. Obtaining the judgment restarts the clock on the statute of limitations and prevents the debt from becoming uncollectible due to age. The strongest aspect of a judgment is that it becomes a part of the debtors credit bureau record and a judgment, in most cases, must be satisfied through full payment in order for many financial transactions such as the sale of the debtors home can occur. Upon a judgment being obtained, it is possible to have hearings in which the debtor must appear in court to demonstrate why the debt has not been paid. Other legal proceedings can occur to enforce payment of the creditor’s debt. The success ratio of collections in litigation is not 100% and the client should be aware that sometimes the money expended to file a lawsuit is lost. Also, in some cases, there is a prolonged delay before the judgment is paid.

Richard Bartlett,
President, SCS Collection Services, LLC

SCS has IT relationships with the following businesses that provide various services to support our activities:

Wells Fargo Bank; we maintain a lock box where most debtor payments made by mail are scanned and automatically deposited to our trust account. A report is created that we upload to our collection software for the purpose of producing our client’s monthly statements. This system keeps our client’s money secure. This system is referred to as an ACH (automated clearing house) data transfer but somewhat more sophisticated.

Telesphere; our phone system is a Windows based platform administered by Telesphere. VOIP technology enables SCS to reduce calling expenses considerably although multiple T1’s are part of the mix.

IAT/CT Center; our predictive dialing function is handled by a separate server which enables SCS to generate thousands of calls daily combined with a messaging program that leaves vast numbers of messages and enables debtors to connect to our agents when they receive our call. Daily, files are loaded from SCS software and the calling campaign begins. Debtnet, our collection software maintains our client’s inventory of accounts assigned and their programmers create custom programming for special projects when needed. Clients with large volumes of accounts being assigned to SCS submit their file to SCS in any format and Debtnet creates uploads for seamless transfers of data.

Dantom; SCS outsources our mailing function enabling us to benefit from NCOA revisions of mailing addresses before collection notices are mailed. We generate bi-lingual collection notices and these notices comply with all Federal and State laws as well as the FDCPA. Notices are mailed within 24 hours of the file being submitted.

TransUnion Credit Bureau; SCS conducts credit scoring and skip tracing (data mining) through individual searches and batch searches. This data is then loaded into Debtnet debtor records.

Accurint; SCS conducts various levels of skip tracing activity to acquire additional contact information as well as property ownership information among other data available from this source.

In the second letter to be published in December, I will discuss the training function in this business addressing the FDCPA, HIPPA compliance issues, internet security, privacy issues, document security procedures, call recording, surveillance efforts and more.

In the following month, I will discuss litigation to recover monies owed our clients.

Sincerely,
Rick Bartlett
President, SCS Collection Services, LLC