Ultimately, if you don’t address the issue then it may come across as if you have something to hide and therefore losing trust and credibility. As you will see from our Company Values, Transparency is key at Athena Collections.

The fact is that you get what you pay for but that doesn’t always mean good quality service so always do your own due diligence before instructing any debt collection agency. We always recommend looking at what other people say about the debt collection agency you intend to instruct. As the saying goes, ‘Pay peanuts, get monkeys’. You can see our independent reviews here.

We are now going to address the elephant in the room with our explanation. In the debt collection industry, it is very difficult to have a ‘one size fits all’ approach.

Be mindful of any company that offers a flat commission rate across the board. This suggests a lack of awareness but also insinuates that you are going to get the same level of service whether your debt is £1,000 or £100,000! Surely you want a debt collection agency acting on your behalf to be incentivised to collect the debt? This also begs the question whether you are getting good value for fair exchange. For instance, let’s assume that the commission rate was 10% and you get the same level of service for the two debt examples above. Would you be happy to pay £100 and £10,000 for the same service?

Some debt collection agencies ask for an upfront fee, an annual or monthly subscription, administration charge, onboarding fee or however else they dress up a cost for doing nothing. Our recommendation would be to avoid any such debt collection company on the basis that once they have had your money in advance, there is very little incentive for them to try and get your debt collected. Of course, they will go through the motions to evidence that some of effort has been made otherwise they would in essence be committing fraud i.e. taking money from customers without providing any service.

Every case is unique with its own merits. Any reputable debt collection agency, in our opinion should therefore tailor its commission structure to take these factors into account.

At Athena Collections, we like to be open and honest about our commission rates. As mentioned above, it is very difficult to have a ‘one size fits all’ approach.

The commission rate we offer to our clients will depend on a number of different factors, i.e. age, size, volume and type of debt. Typically, our commission rates vary from as little as 5%, lowest in industry standards, to 25% for England and Wales debts. We like to be competitive but also provide fair exchange for excellent service. At Athena Collections, we tailor the commission rate offered. The larger the debt is, the lower the commission rate, the smaller the debt is, the larger commission rate. The same rule applies for the age of debt i.e. the older the debt is, the larger the commission rate, the sooner the debt is passed to us, the lower the commission rate will be. Finally, we also take into account the volume of debts to be collected and the debt type i.e. B2B, B2C, services or goods, rent arrears etc…

International debts range from 25% to 40% depending on where in the world the debtor is located.

So, as you can see it is not as simple as applying one flat commission rate because we do not agree that a debt of £100,000 that is 30 days old should attract the same commission rate of a £1,000 debt that is 2 years old. To get an accurate quote visit our 'Pricing' page or click on the 'Request a Quote' button below.

Ultimately, we believe the value we provide is unparalleled but equally we want to be fair and competitive whilst running a profitable business and hope we have demonstrated this above.

Should I use a Debt Collection Agency or a Solicitors Law Firm? We will cover this in a separate article which you can find here.