Cashing in on Collection Jobs

When Shakespeare penned “Hamlet” he tried to warn us: “Neither a borrower, nor a lender be.”

Lucky thing for bill collectors that many folks ignore that advice.

Ask those in the finance field and they’ll attest: increased household debt ? and lenders’ attempts to recoup that money ? is what’s driving the jobs in account collections.

From banks and retailers to health-care and cellular phone service providers, customers’ unpaid bills are mounting. Various sources show that two out of every five American households spend more than they earn each year and that the average family non-mortgage debt in this country is about $14,500.

Arranging payments from customers with these overdue accounts and recovering that money for lenders is the task for the nation’s more than 413,000 bill collectors ? a field expected to grow faster than average through 2012, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The collection industry claims its work saves American households an average of $331 each year in prices that businesses would have otherwise raised to cover bad debt losses.

For this complete story, please visit Cashing in on Collection Jobs.