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RCS Collections Agent Awarded

On the 16th of April RCS gathered their various collection agents at the Crystal Towers Hotel in Cape Town for an Awards evening. Each year RCS awards their top collections firms for recovering funds for them.

RCS have over 3 300 affiliated retail partners in SA and neighbouring states and are labelled the largest independent shopper network in SA. Many South African consumers make use of their credit facilities. Like many creditors however RCS are feeling the pinch of SA consumers not paying back what they have borrowed and have to turn to collections agents to help them get their money back. Statistics from the NCR show that more than half of all SA credit users did not pay their bills last month. Almost half of all credit users are several months behind and deep in the collections process.

Who is calling?

Many large creditors use outsourced companies to do collections for them. Thus when you get a call from “RCS” (for example) you may actually be dealing with a firm that has been hired by RCS to collect on their behalf. This is not uncommon. If you listen carefully you may notice statements like:” I am calling on behalf of x creditor”. This normally means the collections process is being handled by someone outside of the company you borrowed funds from.  This can lead to some confusion when a consumer enters debt review.

A creditor may already have handed the collection process on an account to an outside collections  firm and now (under debt review) begin to deal with the consumer and their debt counsellor internally (or through another company). If they fail to communicate well with their collections firms it might result in collections calls, sms and visits even though the consumer is already under debt review. Consumers can grow concerned that the debt review “is not working” but it is more likely just a case of the outsourced company not having been informed quickly enough. Consumers should just talk to their Debt Counsellors and the Debt Counsellor can notify the creditor where necessary.

3rd Year in a Row

This year the main award as an external debt collector went to Blake. This is the 3rd year in a row that Blake has taken the top spot collecting for RCS in what is described as Late Stage collecting.