Introduction: About the Manual

This training manual is designed to help you become the best collections
agent. This training manual will give you the most reliable knowledge so you know
what you are doing on the job.
In this manual it will go over policies, codes you need to know, and what to
do during certain calls. It also contains quizzes youll have to take when you finish
with certain sections of the manual. You will learn what your responsibilities are as
agents such as what account assignments you will have, catch up payments/plans,
and the difference between hardship plans and settlement plans.
As an agent you will also have to know how to handle a bankruptcy customer
and what legal actions you have to make. All of this and more will be explained to
you in this manual.

Collections Agent Responsibilities:

Account Assignments:
o For each day a collection agent is scheduled to work, they will
be assigned a past due list.
o Any accounts less than 15 days delinquent should not be called
with return code: R03 (No account/unable to locate account),
R04 (invalid account number) or R05 (improper debit to
consumer account) or any other issue that would put blame on
customer service.
Collection agents must limit their calls to their assigned
past due list unless otherwise instructed.
o Account Ownership: An account belongs to the Collection Rep if:
They were the last rep to attempt to or make contact with
the customer.
The customer is on a current Catch-Up plan with the Rep.
The customer has/had a Catch-Up plan and the last
payment failed less than 3 business days before.
The agent has worked out an arrangement with a
customer who does not have new account information.
The agent has 24-hours to receive information from
customer. Detailed notes must be made and timestamped in More Comments and View Actions.
Agent has 3 days to setup CU plan via email as long as
email communication is pasted in MORE COMMENTS
with timestamp and VIEW ACTIONS must have a note
stating Emailing with cust see more comments.
-If agent is away from phone at time of incoming call, they
have a 2-minute hold-time to retrieve call before the
answering agent can handle account.

Quiz & Scenarios 1

George comes into work and after clocking in is given his past due list. As he is
making calls he comes across an account with notes that say CU PLAN MARY FAILED
4/11. He checks the notes in More Comments and sees that Mary has been trying to
contact the customer but has only left voicemails. The last note from Mary was
dated 4/14. Can George take ownership of the account?

If you are away from your phone, how many minutes of hold-time do you have to
retrieve before the answering agent can take over?

Catch-up Plans and Catch-up Payments:

Catch-up Payments:
o A one-time payment to make up for a failed payment (account
MUST be past due).
o One-time payments can be accepted for any past due account
even if the one-time payment will not bring the account current.
o Cath up payments need to be added by the collection rep on
their individual spreadsheet. Payments will be processed by the
payment processor and moved into the appropriate collection
agents commission spreadsheet as they settle. Failed payments
will be marked accordingly.
If payment is off by $5.00 due to late fees, it will be
considered ok for full commission.
o Catch-Up payment amounts submitted by a collection agent to
the payment processor will be limited to the past due amount
plus the applicable NSF fee. (Upon customer request, collection
agent may collect more than the past due amount). Once the
account is brought current, the customer should be referred to
customer service in order to make an extra payment and/or
schedule future payments.
In order to schedule future payments, customer must sign
a form: E.G., one time extra payment, regular payment
increase of payment authorization.
Customer is subject to a $30 payment modification fee
prior to the form being sent by the customer service
agent, unless otherwise noted.
o If customer wants to defer a scheduled payment of more than
then (10) days out, customer must pay a $10 deferment fee
unless otherwise noted.
o Extensions on 90-day SAC date need to be noted in VIEW
ACTIONS:
1-3 day extension=Grace period, no fee
4-30 day extension=10% of cash price + remaining cash
balance (Not offered, customer must ask/request)
DO NOT CHANGE THE SAC EXP DATE. Make sure to include
the EPO with the extension fee in notes.
Catch-up Plans
o A series of payments designed to bring an account current
(account must be past due)
o Catch-up plan payments can vary from 120% of the regular
payment amount and up. Collection agents are free to negotiate
within this range so that the customer can actually perform on
this catch-up plan

If customer is on regular monthly payments, customer will

be required to make at least of the regular monthly
payment within 2 weeks of setting up the arrangement.

Each Catch-Up plan needs to be entered on the Collection

Agents Catch-Up Plan spreadsheet and tracked for commission
purposes.
Catch-Up plans submitted by a collection agent to customer
service will be limited to the past due amount plus one $25
NSF fee.
If the customer decides to mail a payment (check, money order
or cashiers check) the date entered on the spreadsheet should
be the date the customer will mail the payment.
Payment will be marked failed if not received within 7
days from the date it was mailed.
Failed Catch-Up plans are the responsibility of the original agent
who set up the plan. Agents are in charge of keeping track of
their Catch-Up plans through the collections commissiontracking sheet.
Collections agents have 3 business days to resolve failed CatchUp plans before they become fair game for all collections
agents.
Dates and amounts must be revised for any failed
payment plan past 3 days.
Revised Catch-Up plans need to notated as such, entered into
the payments spreadsheet and highlighted neon green in order
to be tracked for commission purposes.
Catch-Up plans may only be scheduled for up to 3 months, this
begins on the date of the customers 1st Catch-Up plan payment.
If there are other payments scheduled after the 3 month period,
they will be moved over to the future payments spreadsheet.
If customer is past the contract term (over a year) talk
to the department manager to get approval for an
extension on the 3-month Catch-Up plan period.
If final payment (EPO) is less than the customers regular
payment amount, it will not be considered hardship; make note
of amount that will be owed.

Hardship Plans and Settlement Plans

Hardship Payments
o Any payment
the customer
o Any payment
the customer

less than 100% of the regular payment amount if

is no more than one payment past due.
less than 120% of the regular payment amount if
is more than one payment past due.

Catch-Up payments that are not received by the next due date
will be considered hardship unless there are notes stating that
customers due date has changed, E.G., new job, incorrect pay
schedule, etc.
Hardship payments will be discounted by 50% when
being added to the commission bucket
Hardship Plans
o NSF Fees may not be charged on hardship plans.
If the 1st payment of the catch-up plan is hardship, a fee
may be charged on the following non-hardship payment
(as long as there has only been one hardship payment).
o If Catch-Up payments are split, within the same billing cycle but
2nd payment is scheduled on the following month, then the 1 st
Catch-Up payment will be considered hardship and next
payment will be full credit.
Split payments that are within the same billing period will
be moved to full commission as long as the 2 nd payment
clears.
o Partial payments less than 50% of the customers regular
payment are considered hardship and the collection agent has 3
days to collect the remaining balance in order to make it full
commission.
We will not accept partial payments less than $5.00; any
fees in other will be removed.
Settlement Plans
o A settlement is a one-time payment which will close a
customers account at a certain amount above the cash price.
o ANY/ALL SETLLEMENTS MUST BE APPROVED BY THE
DEPARTMENT MANAGER. Notes need to be made in VIEW
ACTIONS.
o Settlement plans will be moved over to hardship unless the
length of the plan is approved by the department manager.
In most instances, the customer must make a good faith
payment on the day or the following day that the
settlement is offered, unless authorized by the
department manager.
If customer fails the settlement plan, the settlement plan
will no longer be valid; the account should still be looked
at by the department manager.
o

Bankruptcy Customers

Notice of Bankruptcy, in General: If a customer reports they are in

bankruptcy, immediately inform the customer that you cannot
discontinue collection efforts until you receive written notice of the

Bankruptcy or until the customer provides you with the information

required below. All written Bankruptcy notices and verbal notices
provided by the customer should be delivered (or emailed) to the
bankruptcy case manager.
If Official Notice of Bankruptcy is Received:
o Do not attempt to contact by phone, mail or otherwise any
customer with BANKRUPTCY in the Comment Line.
o If notice was received by mail, image the top page of the notice
into RTOPro (and if possible, scan into pdf and save to portal)
Notate the work BANKRUPTCY in all caps on the
Comment Line of RTOPro, followed by the date of the
notice
o Make appropriate comments in More Comments/View Actions of
RTOPro.
o Give notice to Legal.
o Legal will contact the debtors attorney and update Bankruptcy
List.
o After bankruptcy is confirmed and notated and all collection
efforts and payments processing have ceased, Legal will
manage the bankruptcy matter and inform the Payment
Processor when/if they can continue to process payments. Legal
(and ONLY Legal) can remove or approve the removal of the
word BANKRUPTCY from the Comment Line in RTOPro.
o If a customer-lessee wants to assume the lease, Legal will
amend the Comment Line in RTOPro with BANKRUPTCY-ASSUME
LEASE.
If Notice of Bankruptcy is Received Verbally by Customer-Lessee
o Simple agent is to obtain any/all of the following information:
Debtors attorney name, firm name, phone number and
any other contact information;
Bankruptcy case number
Date of filing
Type of Bankruptcy (Ch. 7, 13) This information is crucial
because it determines our requirements under the
automatic stay.
Court of filing
o DO NOT HANG UP YET! Ask if the Lessee intends to keep the
property or return it.
Your conversation is Simples last change to convince
Lessee to keep the property and assume the lease. If they
want to keep the property, Lessee must know that Simple
is NOT a creditor that can be discharged in bankruptcy
and the Lessees only options are to 1) assume the lease
(Simple continues to process payments), or 2) reject the
lease (Simple picks up property).

Encourage Lessee to tell their attorney what their

intentions are after you educate them on their options.
o Properly notate RTOPro and inform Legal.
Track: The customer will be added to the Charge offs, Repossessions,
and Bankruptcies spreadsheet for tracking purposes. This spreadsheet
will provide as a means of monitoring the status of the accounts in
bankruptcy. The customer service agent responsible for monitoring
bankruptcy accounts will verify that the customer had provided
sufficient and correct notice in or for Simple to postpone collection
efforts. Additionally, this person will contact the customers attorneys
by phone and by email explaining the terms of the lease agreement as
it relates to bankruptcy. This person will encourage the customers
attorney to either assume the lease or reject the lease. If the customer
assumes the lease, collection efforts will resume. If the customer
rejects the lease, the customer will be required to return the
merchandise. This process should be tracked and notated in the
Bankruptcy tab of the Charge offs, Repossessions, and Bankruptcies
spreadsheet.
o Note: We do not close Bankruptcy accounts as Charge Offs in
RTO. These accounts are simply put on hold in terms of
collection efforts until the Bankruptcy is discharged, at which
time collection efforts will resume.
Payments: Customers that assume the lease or customers making
payments in accordance to their Bankruptcy plan should be set up for
payments in the future payments spreadsheet as agreed in the
assumption and or Bankruptcy discharge.

Quiz & Scenarios 2

T or F: A one-time payment will be accepted for a past due account even if it will not
bring the account current.

Susan just got done with a phone call where she set up a payment schedule with an
overdue customer. She set up a payment of $50 to be charged on 1/1, 2/1, 3/1, and
4/1 to close off the account. Did she set up Catch-Up Payments or a Catch-Up Plan?

How much is the deferment fee?

Mark is talking to a customer on the phone that is overdue. The customer is saying
that he cant make the minimum payments on his lease agreement due to a pay cut
at work. Mark decides to set him up on a plan where instead of paying the full
regular payment amount of $150, he has him paying $25 every other week on
Fridays. Once Mark gets off the phone he notates in RTO and on his spreadsheet the
new plan. This is the first plan that has been set up on this customers account. Can
Mark charge an NSF fee?

T or F: An account does not need to be Past Due to set up a Catch-Up Plans

Anne has been trying to get a hold of a customer who is over 150 days past due.
She decided to ask her department manager to approve a one-time payment of
$400 that will close the account. The cash price of the lease is $300. Anne types up
an email and sends it to the customer. The customer emails back in the next three
hours accepting the offer and says that the payment can be made on Tuesday 7/10.
Its Monday. What kind of plan did Anne set up with the customer?

When do Catch-Up Payments become Hardship Payments?

Fred has been calling number after number on his past due list with no success. He
comes across an account that says BANKRUPTCY in the comment line. Can Fred call
the customer?

T or F: A Settlement Plan is a one-time payment which will close a customers

account at a certain amount above the cash price.

T or F: After receiving proper information for a Bankruptcy, the agent is still allowed
to try and collect.

Collection Department Reporting:

Failed Payments:
o Any payments that fail for any reason other than R01
(Insufficient Funds) need to be notated on the Comment Line in
RTO as FAILED NOT R01
o Accounts notated as FAILED NOT R01 will not be processed for
additional payments until the payment failure is resolved (a
payment is considered resolved once a payment settles that was
taken immediately following a failed payment).
o Once payments have been resolved the FAILED NOT R01
comment should be removed for the Comment Line in RTO.
o Customer Service agents processing payments should be
vigilant to identify payment failures due to an invalid account,
unable to locate account or similar return codes. Such return
codes may indicate a pre-paid debit card or other unauthorized
account type. In these cases the customer service agent should
contact the customers bank regarding the account type and the
accounts ABA number in error to determine whether the ABA
number used belongs solely to unauthorized account types in
which case, the ABA number should be added to the ABA
blacklist repository in the portal.
Catch-Up Plans:
o Record all Catch-Up plans in the Payments spreadsheet in
order to process payments as agreed. Once a Catch-Up payment
is processed, the payment should be colored green on the
Catch-Up Payment spreadsheet. Once the payment settles, it
will be bolded and if the payment fails it will be marked red.
Payments will be deleted from the Catch-Up payment
spreadsheet 31 days after the payment was processed.
o If a Catch-Up plan fails, the payment processor will notate the
Comment Line in RTO as CU PLAN Failed 1. If the Catch-Up
payment fails again, the payment processor will notate TRO as
CU PLAN Failed 2. After the second failure, the payment
processor will remove the Catch-Up plan including all future
payments from the Payments spreadsheet and the customers
negotiated Catch-Up plan will be cancelled.
NSF Payments:
o Twice Monthly on the 1st and then on the 15th, customer services
will attempt to process a payment for the standard payment
amount for all past due customers notated in the RTO as FAILED
NOT R01 this twice monthly attempt will be limited to
customers identified as FAILED NOT R01
Once Monthly Collections Reporting:

o
o
o
o
o

Once
o

On the 5th of each month, an aggregated report will be made

and delivered to Scott and Aaron which will detail the following
activity for the previous month:
New and resolved payments stops as well as total outstanding
payment stops.
New and resolved accounts closed as well as total outstanding
accounts closed.
New and resolved accounts invalid as well as total outstanding
accounts invalid.
New and resolved catch-up plans as well as total in-progress
Catch-Up plans.
The number of customers 0-15 days past due, 16-30 days past
due, 31-60 days past due, 61-90 days past due, 90-120 days
past due and 120+ days past due.
The number of new customers that have been charged off as
wells as the amount charged off as well as the total number of
accounts charged off and the amount to date charged off.
Monthly Attorney Account Reporting:
Once a month a report will be aggregated detailing:
All new attorney demand letters sent as well as total
attorney letters sent to date
All failed attorney letters (letters we have been unable to
get to the customer for any reason)
Total small claims services attempts and the total of
successful and failed services.
All scheduled court dates
All attorney repossessions
All judgements to date
All attorney letter catch-up plans to date in progress
All attorney letter catch-up plans successfully completed
All failed attorney letter catch-up plans
New bankruptcy notices received, reaffirmed/repossessed
bankruptcy accounts, and total unresolved bankruptcy
accounts.

Spreadsheet Color code:

Refer to Spreadsheet Color code in bank of pamphlet

o Yellow: payment will be run by the payment processor
o Magenta: payment was NOT run, payment processor will have
notes as to why on the spreadsheet
o Orange: requires an action/review from the collection rep
o Gray: payment will be run by collector, usually due to a specific
time requested by the customer (payment processor will run the
following day)
o Light Green: payment has been processed

o
o

o
o

Dark Green: Action has been completed (usually on APAY) by the

payment processor
Neon Green: revised Catch-Up plan, all other payments on the
spreadsheet will be deleted, so make sure to include all the
payments on the revised plan
Cyan Blue: any mail in payments (Check/Money Order/Cashiers
Check)
Light Red: requires action or review by the payment processor

Quiz and Scenarios 3

Please match the following colors with the correct definition.

Yellow

Requires action or review by payment

processor.

Magenta

Revised Catch-Up plan, all other

payments on the spreadsheet will be
deleted, so make sure to include all the
payments on the revised plan.

Orange

Payment has been processed.

Gray

Payment was NOT run.

Light Green

Payment will be run by collector.

Dark Green

Requires an action/review from

collection rep

Neon Green

Payment will be run by payment

processor.

Cyan Blue

Action has been completed by the

payment processor.

Light Red

Any mail in payments (Check, Money

order, Cashiers Check)

NSFs, Failed Payments & Late Fees

Returned payment fees: A returned payment is subject to a fee up to

$25. Repeated attempts on a payment cannot be subject to additional
fees. Returned payment fees are not automatically applied by RTO
o Customer service agents and or collection agents may in some
cases add the $25 NSF fee at their discretion; fee may only be
added in $5.00 increments.
o If customer calls to let us know that a payment will not clear
prior to it returning, customer service will setup a Catch-Up plan
and the NSF fee will be waived (unless otherwise noted by
customer service)
o NSF fees cannot be charged due to partial payments
Late fees: Late fees are equal to 5% of the past-due payment or $3.00
(whichever is less). In no case will the late fee be less than $2.00
unless the law so requires. A late fee will be assessed five days after
the due date for weekly or bi-weekly payments, and ten days after the
due date for any periodic payments due less frequently than bi-weekly.
Late payment fees are automatically calculated and applied by RTO
and refer to as other.

Collection Commissions

50% Commission Bucket:

o Collection agents can charge up to $25 on failed payments for
any return code, e.g., insufficient funds, stopped payment,
account frozen, account closed, authorization revoked, etc. Only
one $25 fee per past due payment may be charged regardless of
the number of times we have attempted to process the
payment. Incorrectly charging fees will result in a written
warning the first time and termination on the second
occurrence.
o When adding a NSF fee onto a catch-up payment or plan, the fee
must be in addition to 100% of the customers most recently
failed payment.
o For each cleared catch-up payment or plan, the fee must be in
addition to 100% of the customers most recently failed
payment.
o For each cleared catch-up payment with a fee charged by the
collections agent, the agent will earn 50% of the fee but only to
the extent that the fee is:
Charged in addition to 100% of the regular payment
amount if the customer is no more than one payment past
due.

Charged in addition to 120% of the regular payment

amount if the customer is more than one payment past
due.
Processed on or before the customers next regularly
scheduled payment due date or the following due date as
long as the first payment is 120% of regular payment and
the second payment is 120% of the regular payment plus
the fee.
Exceptions to these requirements must be authorized by
the department manager(s).
For customers on monthly payments you will need to get
at least of regular payment within 2 weeks of making
the arrangement with the customer.
Commission Calculations on Past Due Accounts:
o For each cleared catch-up payment a collection agent sets up,
they will receive a commission based upon the total monthly
amount collected but only to the extent that the amount
collected is:
At least 120% of the customers regular payment amount
(excluding late fees and or NSF fees).
Processed on or before the customers next regularly
scheduled payment due date.
Exceptions to this requirement must be authorized by the
department manager(s).
o $6,500-$9,999 collected = $250 commission
o $10,000-$12,499 collected = $300 commission
o $12,500-$14,999 collected = $350 commission
o $15,000-$17,499 collected = $400 commission
o $17,500-$19,999 collected = $450 commission
o $20,000-$22,499 collected = $500 commission
o $22,500-$24,999 collected = $600 commission
o $25,000-$29,999 collected = $750 commission
o $30,000 + collected = $1,000 commission
Commission Payout:
o Commission will be paid out on the 10th of each month or earlier
for the production of the previous month.
o Commission will be calculated based on catch-up payments and
fees that cleared in the previous calendar month.
o Each cleared payment will be tracked in the individual
collections agents sheet on the payment spreadsheet and
totaled from the spreadsheet.

Quiz & Scenarios 4

Late fees are equal to how much?

While taking care of returned payments, Amanda comes across an account that is
an NSF and the customer pays weekly. She looks at the payment history and notices
that the last payment has been marked 1st RETURN. This is the second NSF in a row
with this account. What is she supposed to do?

Returned Payments are subject to a fee up to how much?

What is the minimum collection needed to earn commission?

Quiz and Scenarios Answer Sheet

Quiz and Scenarios Sheet 1:
1. Yes because its been three days since the failed payment and no successful
contact has been made by the previous collector.
2. 2 Minutes
Quiz and Scenarios Sheet 2:
1. T
2. It is a Catch-Up Plan. Catch-Up Payments are a one-time payment that will bring
the account current. A Catch-Up Plan is a series of payments that will bring a
customer current or close the account.
3. $10
4. No, because it is a Hardship Plan that was set up.
5. F
6. Settlement Plan
7. When they are not received by the next due date.
8. No
9. T
10. F
Quiz and Scenarios Sheet 3:
See back handout.
Quiz and Scenarios Sheet 4:
1. 5% or $3.00
2. Takes them off of autopay, and moves the due date back a week. She also
notates in the payment history that this was the 2 nd RETURN.
3. $25
4. $6,500

Color code table

Yellow

Payment will be run by payment

processor.

Magenta

Payment was NOT run.

Orange

Requires an action/review from

collection rep.

Gray

Payment will be run by collector.

Light Green

Payment has been processed.

Dark Green

Action has been completed by the

payment processor.

Neon Green

Revised Catch-Up plan, all other

payments on the spreadsheet will be
deleted, so make sure to include all the
payments on the revised plan.

Cyan Blue

Any mail in payments (Check, Money

order, Cashiers Check)

Light Red

Requires action or review by payment

processor.

FAQs
- How to determine if an account is past due?
Using a calendar we need to determine how many payments a customer
should have made versus how much rent they have paid.
- When is an NSF fee applicable?
Fees cannot be charged due to partial payments. The customer must have a
failed payment and the payment must meet: 1) 100% of the regular payment
if the account is only one payment behind plus the fee or
2) if the acct is more than one payment behind, they should collect 120% of
the regular payment plus the fee.
Fees cannot be added due to return codes: R03 Unable to locate account,
R04 invalid acct number or R05 improper debit to consumer acct.
- Is it hardship or full commission?
Catch-Up plan payments can vary from 120% of the regular payment amount
and up. If it is less than 100% of the regular payment the Catch-Up plan
payment will be moved to hardship.
**If customer is on regular monthly payments, customer will be required to
make at least 1/2 of the regular monthly payment within 2 weeks of setting
up the arrangement for full commission.
- If the payment clears as a partial should the rest of the plan be
deleted?
The plan will continue if the partial payment was more than half of a regular
payment. Make sure to remove fees from payment and SS.
- When do we fail Catch-Up plans if a customer is sending a
check/money order?
If we have not received a check or money order within 10 days of the CP
date on the SS we will mark it as failed. Collectors must be notating when
the check will be mailed so that we can determine (calculate) its arrival.
- Can I put the customer back on autopay?
The customer may be put back on autopay as long as we are not pushing out
the due date by more than 1/2 of a regular payment.