Welcome back to debt collection 101, your beginner’s guide to debt collection. In articles one and two, I spoke about the different kind of collection agents, how bill collectors will locate a consumer, and what they will do when they contact the consumer. In article three I described the strict rules and regulations that debt collectors, particularly third party debt collectors must abide by when they make each phone call.

In article four I wrote about what the job of a debt collector is like, and in article five I described the expectations that debt collectors are generally required to meet on the job. Now I will write about the perks of being a debt collector, and what the collections industry can expect to see in the future.

The key idea for any collection agent just starting out to remember is to hang in there: the amount of experience that a collections agent gains is directly proportional to their rate of success, and more success, means more money in commissions. There is much growth potential for debt collectors, as collectors who are successful will usually get bigger accounts that come with opportunities to earn more money.

Additionally, collection agents who acquire additional experience, training and skills are also more likely to advance. The majority of collection agents work forty hours per week, with some working evenings and weekends, others working part time. Usually, the work schedules of a collection agent are pretty flexible.

In the year of 2008, surveys showed that there were almost 411,000 collection agents. Twenty five percent were hired by businesses, nineteen percent were working for financial and insurance agencies, and eighteen percent were employed in the health care field. Experts predict the amount of debt collection jobs to grow at a rate faster than the average of all other occupations. It is projected to grow by an enormous nineteen percent from 2008 to 2018. These analysts expect that new jobs will be created in industries like health care and financial services, and that jobs will grow for both in house bill collectors and third party collection agencies.

Mallory Megan works for Rapid Recovery Solution and writes articles on nationwide collection agencies.

A few parents in Central Texas are being mailed collection letters for instruments that were rented. The only thing is, they attempted to return the musical instruments, but could not.

One mother is like many other parents who rented from the now bankrupt local music store in 2008. Her son finished the work with his rented clarinet in May 2008, and she tried to bring it back to the music store.

When she got to the music store, there was a note on the door letting customers know that they were out of business and no one was in there. On a number of occasions, she tried to go by the store, and even called other locations. To add insult to injury, her bank could not stop the automatic monthly payments that were being taken out of her account.

Around two years later, when the payments had halted, the mother sold the clarinet for ninety dollars. All in all, she was charged three hundred dollars after the point she tried to return it. The young mother thought that that would be the end of the clarinet situation. But soon after she received a five hundred dollar collection notice from a collections agency on behalf of the instrument maker Conn-Selmer. The instrument makers had received her information as part of the bankruptcy process.

The young mother was taken aback. She couldn’t fathom that she had been charged for the year when she couldn’t return it, and now that she is expected to pay money, she felt as though the store owed her money, not the other way around.

After a local news channel contacted a spokeswoman for Conn Selmer to find answers for the parents who had received collection bills, the spokeswoman said that the company will be sending letters to all parents who received collection letters. The letter will supposedly detail how parents who feel as though they are being unfairly treated can challenge the debt.

Mallory McGuinness works for a debt collection company. She also does articlesabout finance and business, consumer spending and collection agencies.