The key to collection profitability is obvious. Collect more than you spend. The effort including time and money spent on a single collection account will vary for everyone. One thing remains true is that you can't collect until you to locate the debtor.
I'm not going to talk about the easy to locate debtors, like me (seriously though, if you wanted to find me that's pretty easy), but since I pay my bills I'm not trying to hide from collections agencies.
Do you need a full-blown skip trace (a professional investigator does a human search) a serious sometimes several week-long investigation (fees can run from a few hundred on up) or will an online reverse SSN lookup help you do some research yourself? If you are a decent snoop or work for a collection firm and have some in-house resources you can do some simple fact-finding and make some phone calls to some old neighbors or relatives and that might be enough to find your debtor.
However, if that is not your forte' then you may not want to alert the subject that you're closing in on him and a professional may be what you need. Either way, there are some great online resources to help you.
The key is to usually keep costs down (heck you're already out the dough). Almost everyone starts with a free online search. Now you could use many of the free services available as listed on my blog some include addresses, spokeo and facebook and many others.
Then if the free stuff doesn't help, you have to turn to public records. How much time and how many different searches do you run? It could end up costing you the same as running a verified locate (skip) in lost or wasted time. It's all a balancing act.
Even though there are dozens of web sites were you can get free searches, public records and assisted skips and other assisted searches from you need to be careful.
Be sure the company you deal with has a reputation in the collection field. Look for companies that do not charge any monthly minimum fees (they are out there - hard to find but exist).
Look for a company that offers free access to millions of people records via a free people finder directory and if no free records are found can search public records at the same time and tell you if anything was found - the key here is they tell you some of the actual information found before asking you for any fees.
Web sites that offer to sell you information but show you a generic sales page may not really have the information or may have an old flat file. Real time records will show you a preview of the actual available data.
Lastly look for BBB accreditation or other accredited organizations and be sure you can contact the company from their web site where they prominently display company phone and address information.
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