What are the chief tools of old school debt collectors? Phone and US mail. Two problems. Nobody answers the phone when it’s an unknown number (do you?) and US mail, increasingly, is tossed unread because all the important, urgent stuff comes via email.
Enter January (formerly Debtsy), a fintech that is pioneering 21st century collection techniques that are kinder, gentler and – above all – digital. The chief January tools are email and its website and, in the process, January also uses data to sift through charged off debts to zero in on those borrowers who have both the means and the willingness to repay.
A lot of debtors have neither. January seeks to focus in on the borrowers where the potential for return is real.
That approach looks vastly more effective than the old school techniques. It also is highly cost efficient because much of it is automated.
You will hear all about 21st century debt collection in this podcast with Tyler Gillies, January’s director of operations.
January of course knows that most credit unions seek to have a positive image in their communities and so it avoids the bruising, demeaning tactics of at least some debt collectors.
What size credit unions will January work with? Pretty much any size. Gillies says clients range from $10 billion+ behemoths to small credit unions. In the podcast he also details exactly how a credit union starts with January, what the costs are, and how long it takes for January to get busy trying to collect. Spoiler: the whole process usually is very fast.
Sure, we know talking charged off debt is a something of a bummer – but this nonetheless is a surprisingly upbeat podcast.
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