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The Internet is actively used by credit card issuers to acquire new accounts as well as bill and receive payments from credit card cardholders. Online self-service is reducing account maintenance costs by enabling cardholders to become more self reliant in the management of their accounts. The next logical extension to automating the management of the cardmember lifecycle is online collections. Incurrent is innovating credit card collections by expanding its suite of online credit card solutions to address the challenges of facilitating cardmember collections online.

One of the biggest and most costly issues facing credit card companies is chasing delinquent cardmembers for payment. This has become even more challenging with new telecommunications technology such as Caller ID and Call Intercept, which significantly aid late-paying cardholders in avoiding telephone collectors. Such avoidance is typically driven by embarrassment over the social stigma of payment delinquency.
Discreet and more private innovative online collection methods can minimize the embarrassment of collection calls and offer cardholders a more comfortable, less confrontational way to resolve a late payment issue. In return, credit card companies can use a “soft” collection practice which can maintain customer good will while reducing the cost of using live collection agents.

As with Incurrent’s other self-service credit card applications, InSite Collections is designed to enable delinquent cardmembers to self-cure their accounts. Late paying cardmembers are offered a series of Web pages that lead them to resolve their delinquency issue.
An initial Web page summarizes a cardholder’s situation, detailing the amount of debt outstanding and the delinquency period. This Web page leads the cardholder to a bill payment page where they may make a payment, schedule future payments or set up recurring payments. Yet, if the payment amount falls below an issuer set threshold, the issuer may send an online prompt for the cardholder to pay a larger amount. In addition to making payments, the cardholder has the ability to set a future payment commitment or inform the issuer that they have already sent a payment that is in transit.

The InSite Collections system is also prepared to escalate the collections process beyond payment prompting. If required, the system will attempt to negotiate a payment program with delinquent cardholders. The online system then enables the cardholder to execute this program through the bank’s Web site.

Failing to reach a mutually agreeable payment program online, cardmembers can use online communications to schedule an appointment to talk with a collection advisor. Remedial automation tracks delinquent cardholder progress, delivering account status messages to cardholders as well as payment reminder alerts. Such measures help ensure the cardholder remains aware and sensitive of their progress.

Finally, the Incurrent collection system offers cardmembers a suite of educational material, calculators and other tools to help them learn and more responsibly maintain good credit practices. Providing cardholders with access to credit bureau reports would appear to be a good complement to this part of the system but is not yet a feature.

Incurrent’s InSite Collections system will be most effective in rehabilitating responsible cardmembers who are reacting to a financial crisis or simply slow payers and need added support from their bank. InSite Collections will not be effective for other cardholder delinquents simply looking to skip the responsibility of a debt. Such hard-core delinquents will need traditional aggressive collection measures to resolve their situations.

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