2004 Credit Suit

NCO moving call centers overseas

Collecting debt going overseas

"...

Because debt collection is extremely labor intensive, it's an industry that, like customer service, all but demands to be farmed out to the cheapest possible workforce.

The largest debt collector in the United States is a Pennsylvania company called NCO Group, which last month reported quarterly profit of $10.3 million, up from $6.8 million a year earlier.

NCO is in the final stages of acquiring RMH Teleservices, a major operator of call centers. The company thus expects to combine its already extensive debt-collection services with a small army of call-center workers in Canada, India, Barbados and the Philippines.

Paul Weitzel, NCO's executive vice president of corporate development, said overseas facilities account for about 5 percent of his company's debt- collection activities. Within five years, he said, at least a quarter of all of NCO's debt collection will be conducted from abroad.

Weitzel said this is because NCO's 50,000 clients -- he declined to name even one -- are demanding greater savings through lower costs, and because NCO can't find a sufficient number of U.S. workers "who will take the job for what we're willing to pay."

"As long as clients want to cut costs and we can't fill seats in the United States, you're going to see this trend continuing," he said.

This means that a growing number of overseas workers will have access to the names, addresses, Social Security numbers and, in some cases, complete credit histories of U.S. consumers. Weitzel, however, was quick to note that data can be compromised anywhere.

..."

Prisoners don't make good debt collectors while in prison since they don't get paid on commission. But I guess they can apply once they are released.