If you have spent more than just a few years in the collection industry you undoubtedly have a list of favorite stories you share with family, friends and colleagues. It is a dynamic industry that deals with the challenges a ffecting consumers on many levels. These stories of consumer interactions are only possible, of course, if you can locate and actually speak with the correct party. Since the very start of the evolution of the collection industry, we have maintained a need to find people who have temporarily disappeared. These are the consumers who skip out of town. We refer to them as skips. The function of actively searching for a person’s whereabouts using a wide range of resources is known as skip tracing.
As a trainer and speaker I have experienced many humorous situations during my presentations. Seminar attendees come in all types, different backgrounds and levels of industry tenure. Years back there was a young lady in one of my basic collection programs who was brand new to the collection industry. After only a few weeks on the job, her company sent her to my program. She was quite inquisitive and was really soaking in all of the good information of the day. She learned much about the industry from her peers in the room, some of which were seasoned veterans. Part of the program addressed skip tracing and the various methods used to find consumers. At the end of the day, she approached me and thanked me for speaking and helping her become a more educated, confident collection professional. As she was about to leave she said, “and, I’m really impressed with how that Skip Tracey guy gets around to so many companies. Gosh, almost everyone in the room knew him...” I started to laugh at her attempt at a joke and then realized she was serious! She was hearing skip tracing as “Skip Tracey” and thought he was a brilliant resource to the many collection firms in attendance. We had a good laugh when I pointed out the miscommunication to her and I’ve never forgotten that moment!
Whether you engage in skip tracing or you actually have a Skip Tracey working for you, there is an ongoing and vital need for this function. This edition of Collection Advisor is focusing on the skip tracing function which continues to plague collection agencies and recovery departments across the US. Often in my management level programs, attendees benchmark their skip tracing efforts against other attendees. They want to know the best resource, most effective vendor, best pricing and other practical aspects of the process.
If you are a long-tenured collection professional, you distinctly remember early skip tracing days when a collector would run an inexpensive credit report on a consumer and then call other creditors listed and ask for the Skip Tracing Department. After telling them you were calling about a mutual customer they would tell you anything you wanted to know including, date of birth, address, spouse information, or forms of payment. It was a valuable process and very effective. Once the Graham Leach Bliley Act went into effect over 15 years ago, all creditors ceased their skip tracing operations and which started a much stricter consumer privacy.
Today we rely on data repositories of all types and focuses to provide us with updated information, primarily in batched formats, to assist with making actual contact with consumers. The right choice for our operations depends on many variables including original underwriting policies, type of debt, general demographics of your consumer base and perhaps average account balance. I trust that many of your skip tracing questions will be answered in this issue.
I have always enjoyed the function of tracking down consumers who have disappeared. I think there is a bit of a private detective in all of us. It is very rewarding to find someone who has been missing for a long time. And, even more rewarding to effect the collection. I think there is a bit of Skip Tracey in every collection professional!
We encourage our readers to submit a “best practice” idea for inclusion in this column. Until next time, I’m in a collection office near you!
Harry A. Strausser III is the President of Interact Training and Development. He can be reached at