City Turns to Collection Service for Bad Checks

by Mike Bevel, CollectionIndustry.com

Sure, you could rely on untrained staff to go after insufficient checks ? or, you could take a page from Council Bluff, IA, and hire a collection agency to go after the bad check writers for you. Because if there?s something a collection agency knows how to do, it?s collect.

Council Bluff has just contracted with Cybrcollect to track and collect missing funds.

“The city has a new service for handling returned checks,” City Finance Director Scott Sanders told the Daily Nonpareil. “It will definitely be a time-saver, and we’ll get more collection because this is their job, their expertise. For us, this was always a side job. It is a way to have the private industry handle this.”

On average, the city lost $1,000 a year because of insufficient-fund checks.

Under the new service, if a check bounces, Cybrcollect will be notified, with the ability to monitor or “ping” that person’s bank account.

Best of all, Cybrcollect has an 80 percent success rate in getting money owed to its clients.

There was no cost to the city for signing up for this service, Sanders said. A $30 late penalty fee for the returned checks is paying Cybrcollect. If the city receives its money owed from a returned check without needing Cybrcollect, it would still charge the $15 penalty fee.