The Old-fashioned Collection Letter

President of Adams, Evens & Ross (AER) Wilson Cole takes this podcast to talk about collection letters. This is the first thing he asks if a client has done when they call him to let him know they have a collections situation they may need to hand over. If the client says they have not sent out a collection letter yet, he suggests they do it before proceeding to anything else and this is why. It prompts a response and that response is a litmus test in regards to whether or not the debtor will end up paying. In response to a collection letter, sometimes the debtor will say “they’re not going to pay because…” In this scenario, it obviously lets the creditor know they need to move forward with the collections process, but the creditor should also make note to stop any/all communication directly with the debtor at this point because otherwise, anything said/done beyond this point will be used as a defense on why they (the debtor) should not pay.