October 1, 2014 Newsletter
Medical Providers Beware of New FICO Scoring
A new credit scoring model by FICO ensures that medical collection accounts have a lower impact on FICO scores. FICO states this new scoring model is more predictive of a consumer’s likelihood to repay debt than previous models. The new scoring model also bypasses paid collection agency accounts.
The model was developed to represent a consumer’s repayment behavior in degrees of risk. For example, instead of classifying a consumer as someone who paid their account in full or did not pay their account, the degrees of their payment history are quantified. Medical and paid accounts will still show on a consumer’s credit report but will not be included in the credit score. Whether or not lenders will look at just the credit score rather than the whole report is to be determined.
Wireless Service Continues to Rise While TCPA Rules Remain Stagnant
The percentage of wireless only households in the U.S. is increasing. The second half of 2013 showed that wireless only households reached 41%. A recent survey done by CTIA shows that currently, 96% of American adults are mobile subscribers. This is up from the blog we brought you, last year, regarding cell phone verbiage.Though there is such an increase in wireless users, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) has not kept pace. The act was in enacted in 1991 to address telemarketing calls, certain practices found to be an invasion of consumer privacy as well as prohibited the use of automated telephone systems when calling a wireless phone without prior consent from the consumer.To help get movement on clarification of TCPA rules and regulations, ACA International has submitted a petition to the Federal Communications Commission including clarification that express consent attaches to the debt, not the phone number.
This Call is Being Recorded
Finance System of Green Bay, Inc. uses the latest in technology to locate, contact and motivate referrals to pay delinquent accounts. One of these technologies is our digital voice recorder.In our office, any time someone picks up a phone, the call is recorded by our digital voice recorder. Having this recorder and being able to store calls gives us numerous advantages over other collection agencies and allows us to do our job better.An important benefit of our digital recorder is that it is used as a training and critiquing tool. When we have a new collector on the phones, the manager will review the calls to make sure everything is being handled correctly and professionally. This way, the manager is able to go over these calls with the collector with any suggestions for improvement.Another advantage of having the digital recorder, is that when a collector informs a consumer that the call is being recorded, a consumer’s phone etiquette changes. Rather than a verbally abusive consumer, more times than not, we’ll end up dealing with one more willing to cooperate in a more pleasant manner.The last benefit we would like to discuss is the ability to refute accusations and put our clients’ minds at ease. There are times when a customer will go to our clients and accuse us of saying something we haven’t to try to get out of paying their bill. With the recorder, we have the ability to play back a recording to prove what was actually said during a conversation. This helps with our clients’ confidence in us because we can review the call and explain to the client what was actually said.So, the digital voice recorder helps improve our skills, work with consumers in a more positive manner, and helps our clients have more confidence in us. After all, we are representing our clients on every phone call, therefore, we want to make sure each call goes as well as it possibly can.
Upcoming Appearances
Apartment Association of Southeastern Wisconsin Trade Show 2014
September 19 at the Potawatomi Hotel and Casino – Milwaukee
HFMA 2014 Fall Conference
September 24-27 at the Metropolis Resort and Conference Center – Eau Claire
AAHAM Fall 2014 Conference
October 2-3 at the Metropolis Resort and Conference Center – Eau Claire
WSTA Fall Conference October
6-8 at the La Crosse Center – La Crosse
2014 Wisconsin Medical Society’s 15th Annual Symposium
October 19-21 at the Kalahari Resort – Wisconsin Dells
WHEDA 2014 Conference
November 6 at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center – Madison
