What Does a Collector Do?

Collectors are responsible for monitoring and providing immediate actions for client accounts with overdue payments. Collectors must be able to contact clients through phone or e-mail. A collector's duty also includes negotiating on payment procedures and offering repayment plans and alternative payment solutions to free the debt. Collectors need to document any agreements made to the client, updating and verifying contact information, resolving account discrepancies and client complaints, and report escalated concerns to the management.

Collector Responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real collector resumes representing typical tasks they are likely to perform in their roles.

Manage patient focuse reports, collection modules, provider/facility A/R, collections, patient discharge letters.
Monitor all assign accounts by reviewing the client's aging, manage all potential bad debit, DSO, aging.
Prevent impeding loss and increasing profitability through negotiation and enforcement of schedule collection campaigns, consistently achieving high success standards.
Provide customer service via telephone and correspondence for patients and authorize representatives regarding outstanding patient accounts in accordance with facility protocol.
Verify and run eligibility on the following insurance, Medi-Cal, Medi-Cal HMO, Medicare, Medicare HMO.
Provide excellent customer service while following HIPPA confidentiality laws.
Collect and document delinquent accounts in accordance with departmental and FDCPA guidelines.
Collect and resolve outstanding deficiencies for clients; include skip-tracing, payment arrangements, and settlement negotiation of outstanding personal accounts.
Practice laws mandate by HIPPA and company regulations.
Assess denials, pursue appeals or close claims when appropriate.
Analyze EOB's to make sure insurances paid the correct amount.
Research and find correct payment for Medi-Cal & Medicare and resubmitted claims.
Run monthly A/R and review spreadsheets focusing firstly on high dollar and over 120 days.
Clean up A/R drastically by back billing Medi-Cal claims and appealing of several PPO claims.
Complete medical coding and billing for inpatient and outpatient services, including all CPT and ICD9 codes.

Collector Skills and Personality Traits

We calculated that 14% of Collectors are proficient in Patients, Customer Service, and Payment Arrangements. They’re also known for soft skills such as Communication skills, Empathy, and Good judgment.

We break down the percentage of Collectors that have these skills listed on their resume here:

Patients, 14%
Motivated patients to prioritize payment of delinquent accounts * Consistently exceeded monthly goals * Maintained top collector status
Customer Service, 10%
Owned team productivity metrics and implemented strategic changes, led a team of customer service representatives to increase service center profitability.
Payment Arrangements, 10%
Negotiate payment arrangements on past due accounts while leveraging auto-dial system to initiate customer contact and determine reason for delinquency.
Excellent Interpersonal, 9%
Position requires excellent interpersonal, customer service skill, computer proficiency.
Delinquent Accounts, 8%
Provided exceptional collection support includes, counseling customers on delinquent accounts to bring resolution to unpaid accounts following company policies.
Student Loans, 5%
Contacted clients already in payment programs for defaulted federal student loans and assisted them with necessary documentation and related paperwork.

"patients," "customer service," and "payment arrangements" aren't the only skills we found collectors list on their resumes. In fact, there's a whole list of collector responsibilities that we found, including:

While "listening skills" is listed last on this skills list, don't underestimate its importance to collector responsibilities. The skill is described by this resume snippet, "collectors must pay attention to what debtors say when trying to negotiate a repayment plan" Here is an example of how this skill is used, "communicate and negotiate payment arrangements with cardholders by using active listening skills to determine reason for delinquency. "

See the full list of collector skills.

The three companies that hire the most prestigious collectors are:

Quest Diagnostics58 Collectors Jobs
Army National Guard34 Collectors Jobs
National Guard
32 Collectors Jobs

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What Account Representatives Do

Account representatives are employees who manage client accounts and act as the main contact of the clients they are handling. They maintain existing accounts by updating client details regularly. They also check up on clients to see if they are still satisfied with the products or services of the company. They also create new accounts by welcoming new clients and assisting them in their needs. Account representatives manage client inquiries and process client requests. They also address complaints and ensure that any challenges are mitigated and that clients remain with the company.

In this section, we compare the average collector annual salary with that of an account representative. Typically, account representatives earn a $2,105 higher salary than collectors earn annually.

Even though collectors and account representatives have vast differences in their careers, a few of the skills required to do both jobs are similar. For example, both careers require patients, customer service, and payment arrangements in the day-to-day roles.

As far as similarities go, this is where it ends because a collector responsibility requires skills such as "excellent interpersonal," "student loans," "outbound collection calls," and "overdue accounts." Whereas a account representative is skilled in "data entry," "customer satisfaction," "cpt," and "medical terminology." So if you're looking for what truly separates the two careers, you've found it.

Account representatives tend to make the most money in the finance industry by averaging a salary of $38,433. In contrast, collectors make the biggest average salary of $35,207 in the finance industry.

The education levels that account representatives earn is a bit different than that of collectors. In particular, account representatives are 1.5% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a collector. Additionally, they're 0.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

What Are The Duties Of a Recovery Specialist?

A recovery specialist has various responsibilities depending on their line of work or industry. In a business setting, a recovery specialist is in-charge of devising plans and strategies to protect a company or brand's networks, systems, data, hardware, and software. They primarily function to prevent damages or losses by implementing precautionary and corrective measures. Furthermore, a recovery specialist needs to coordinate with co-workers and team members, report to a manager or supervisor, and adhere to its policies and standards.

Next up, we have the recovery specialist profession to look over. This career brings along a higher average salary when compared to a collector annual salary. In fact, recovery specialists salary difference is $16,726 higher than the salary of collectors per year.

Not everything about these jobs is different. Take their skills, for example. Collectors and recovery specialists both include similar skills like "patients," "customer service," and "payment arrangements" on their resumes.

In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences that are worth noting. For example, collector responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "excellent interpersonal," "outbound collection calls," "patient accounts," and "process payments." Meanwhile, a recovery specialist might be skilled in areas such as "mental health," "substance abuse," "rehabilitation," and "customer satisfaction." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.

When it comes to the differences in education between the two professions, recovery specialists tend to reach similar levels of education than collectors. In fact, they're 3.9% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.0% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

How a Loan Services Representative Compares

A loan service representative is responsible for communicating and interacting with clients and serves as a back-up or reliever in a company. They are the first person that the client must go through if they want to apply for a loan. Loan representatives monitor and ensure that all data and information is properly documented using a loan processing system. Also, they are the ones who inspect and verify if a company is complying with the transaction rules as well as the loan procedures and regulations.

The loan services representative profession generally makes a higher amount of money when compared to the average salary of collectors. The difference in salaries is loan services representatives making $3,731 higher than collectors.

While looking through the resumes of several collectors and loan services representatives we discovered that both professions have similar skills. These similarities include skills such as "customer service," "payment arrangements," and "delinquent accounts," but they differ when it comes to other required skills.

As mentioned, these two careers differ between other skills that are required for performing the work exceedingly well. For example, gathering from collectors resumes, they are more likely to have skills like "patients," "excellent interpersonal," "past due accounts," and "debt repayment." But a loan services representative might have skills like "loan payments," "escrow accounts," "mortgage loans," and "ach."

Loan services representatives make a very good living in the finance industry with an average annual salary of $53,142. Whereas collectors are paid the highest salary in the finance industry with the average being $35,207.

When it comes to education, loan services representatives tend to earn similar education levels than collectors. In fact, they're 1.1% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.1% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Description Of a Recovery Agent

Now, we'll look at recovery agents, who generally average a higher pay when compared to collectors annual salary. In fact, the difference is about $3,900 per year.

While their salaries may vary, collectors and recovery agents both use similar skills to perform their jobs. Resumes from both professions include skills like "payment arrangements," "delinquent accounts," and "student loans. "

Even though a few skill sets overlap, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a collector might have more use for skills like "patients," "customer service," "excellent interpersonal," and "outbound collection calls." Meanwhile, some recovery agents might include skills like "debt collection," "tow truck," "financial institutions," and "credit card" on their resume.

Recovery agents earn a higher salary in the energy industry with an average of $45,507. Whereas, collectors earn the highest salary in the finance industry.

Recovery agents reach similar levels of education when compared to collectors. The difference is that they're 0.8% more likely to earn a Master's Degree less, and 0.4% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.