Credit director vs collections manager

The differences between credit directors and collections managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 6-8 years to become both a credit director and a collections manager. Additionally, a credit director has an average salary of $129,845, which is higher than the $59,529 average annual salary of a collections manager.

The top three skills for a credit director include credit policy, oversight and credit card. The most important skills for a collections manager are customer service, collection management, and portfolio.

Credit director vs collections manager overview

	Credit Director	Collections Manager
Yearly salary	$129,845	$59,529
Hourly rate	$62.43	$28.62
Growth rate	17%	17%
Number of jobs	10,813	44,553
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 72%	Bachelor's Degree, 51%
Average age	46	46
Years of experience	8	8

What does a credit director do?

A credit director oversees an organization's credit-granting activities, ensuring operations adhere to credit policies and standards. Their responsibilities include making decisions in adherence with the company's short- and long-term goals, setting priorities, establishing timelines, conducting regular reviews and assessments, negotiating with external parties, and coordinating managers and supervisors. They may also manage employees to achieve these goals.

What does a collections manager do?

A collections manager is an individual who manages a staff of collectors whose job is to contact companies and individuals for the late payments on the products and services they have received. Collections managers oversee a company's process of retrieving money owed to them by assigning collectors to collect the money. They are required to handle customer complaints and must negotiate with customers about payment arrangements to ensure they are being paid. They also provide reports on the collection department's progress, statistics, and data analysis.

Credit director vs collections manager salary

Credit directors and collections managers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Credit Director	Collections Manager
Average salary	$129,845	$59,529
Salary range	Between $76,000 And $220,000	Between $42,000 And $83,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	New York, NY
Highest paying state	Alaska	New York
Best paying company	Aspiration	Amazon
Best paying industry	Finance	Health Care

Differences between credit director and collections manager education

There are a few differences between a credit director and a collections manager in terms of educational background:

	Credit Director	Collections Manager
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 72%	Bachelor's Degree, 51%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	Stanford University

Credit director vs collections manager demographics

Here are the differences between credit directors' and collections managers' demographics:

	Credit Director	Collections Manager
Average age	46	46
Gender ratio	Male, 72.7% Female, 27.3%	Male, 50.8% Female, 49.2%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 7.9% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 15.3% Asian, 8.3% White, 64.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%	Black or African American, 8.0% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 15.5% Asian, 7.3% White, 64.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%
LGBT Percentage	11%	11%

Differences between credit director and collections manager duties and responsibilities

Credit director example responsibilities.

Manage a staff of 50+ FTE.
Partner with small and entrepreneurial business to develop business plans and assist business owners with achieving payroll.
Communicate collection concepts to associates using FDCPA guidelines and the company training guide.
Developed/Share best practices, including collection practices and FDCPA rules/regulations training.
Approve and prepare attorney cases for processing, guardianship, Medicaid eligibility and/or litigation.
Major focus are on risk and DSO, integrating acquisitions, national accounts, high-risk customer visitations/negotiations, and trend identification/remediation.

Collections manager example responsibilities.

Achieve 182 FTE save, and annual net saving of $2.8MM
Manage Medicaid accounts in effort to receive payment from them.
Manage self pay and Medicaid pending collections throughout the southeast region.
Organize the managed care effort to ensure that patients are not accept from incorrect PPO's and HMO's.
Create and implement new quantitative process to achieve corporate DSO targets that determines monthly cash collection targets by business unit.
Achieve historical low of six percent in A/R over 30 days past due and reduction of DSO to 53 days.

Credit director vs collections manager skills

Common credit director skills

Credit Policy, 6%
Oversight, 6%
Credit Card, 5%
Process Improvement, 5%
Receivable Portfolio, 4%
Credit Risk Management, 4%

Common collections manager skills

Customer Service, 15%
Collection Management, 9%
Portfolio, 7%
FDCPA, 5%
Delinquent Accounts, 4%
Credit Card, 4%

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Credit Director
Credit Director vs Collections Manager

Updated January 8, 2025

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