What do you do when your customer fails to pay you for the product or service you have offered? The first thing you do is try to contact the customer. But if you can’t reach him, then what?
Several recovery agencies use various debt collection tactics to recover dues efficiently and overcome payment issues.
Skip tracing is one of those tactics.
What is Skip Tracing in Debt Collection?
In case you don’t know what a skip tracer is, a skip tracer helps recover debts from those who have skipped payment and can’t be contacted physically or by virtual means like phone calls, messages, and emails. The debt skipper may have gone elsewhere, and most of the time, the family members or residents can’t tell where he is. Sometimes, the customer provides a false address. Here, skip tracing services work best.
So, in short, skip tracing meaning is tracing the person who skipped debt.
Who Needs a Skip Tracer, and When?
Generally, loan recovery agents, bondsmen, private investigators, detectives, lawyers, and journalists use skip tracing services.
When the payee goes completely incommunicado, it is better to contact a skip tracer. You might have understood what is a skip tracer by now from the definition above. But how to find them? Where are they available?
There are third-party agencies that offer skip tracing services. The debt collection agency has a specialized skip tracing team who work for lesser fees than an independent skip tracer. The agencies generally only charge a fee if the debt is recovered. On the other hand, most independent tracers charge hourly since they start hunting for debt skippers.
If you need skip tracing, you should research agencies and independent skip tracers and find out which one is suitable for you.
Skip Tracing Process
Independent of an agency, the skip tracer works in a particular pattern.
1. Verifying the information
To trace the debtor, it is first of all necessary to obtain the correct information. Skip tracers verify the information provided by the debtor. If they can find the information quickly, it is easy to search out and ask the debtor to pay.
2. Collecting publicly available information
Finding through databases may only sometimes be helpful and time-taking; therefore, the tracers rely on publicly available information. The sources for the same are:-
- Driving license
- Phone records
- Address history
- Travel records
- Court records
- Criminal records
- Credit card information
- Loan information
- Tax records
- Social media
- Job application records
- Utility bills
Connecting the dots is more accessible from information derived through these sources.
3. Contacting family and friends
Family members and friends can sometimes help trace the debtor, but not always. If they are unwilling to tell the debtor’s current location, the skip tracer may approach landlords, neighbors, and colleagues.
Should You Hire Professional Skip Tracers?
Professional skip tracers may do the job more efficiently than the individual who owes the debtor, as it is a time-taking and hazardous process. The debt collection agencies also have skip tracing software which an individual can’t use.
A business owner having a nonpaying client should hire professionals as his workers, including himself, have many other things to do than chasing down a debtor. The specialized agencies not only spend much time on skip tracing services but also use skip tracing software and other costly tools. But they do it to earn money, which a freelancer or a business owner can’t do, wasting all his time and resources for one debtor.
Like any other field, skip tracing is also digital, with professionals relying more on skip tracing software and other technologies than physical hunting.
Skip Tracing Certification
Several skip tracing certification programs, both online and offline, are available for learning the best methods to work as individual skip tracers or agency personnel. Skip tracing certification courses also offer area-specific learning of skip tracing techniques, such as real estate sector, debt investors, and law firms.
