Collections Information

May 22, 2009

Facts and statistics about third-party debt collection.

  • Printer-friendly version
  • Share with friends via E-mail
  • Share with friends on Facebook
  • Share with friends on LinkedIn
  • Share with friends on Twitter
  • Third-party debt collectors returned $40.4 billion to the U.S. economy in 2007. (Source: "Value of Third-Party Debt Collection to the U.S. Economy in 2007: Survey and Analysis," PricewaterhouseCoopers, June 2008.)
  • The collection industry saved the average American household $354 in 2007. This amount represents dollars households would have spent if businesses were forced to raise prices to cover bad debt. The annual savings is the average household equivalent of eight months of cellular phone use, 127 gallons of gas, or 86 days of electricity. (Source: "Value of Third-Party Debt Collection to the U.S. Economy in 2007: Survey and Analysis," PricewaterhouseCoopers, June 2008.)
  • The $40.4 billion returned to creditors in 2007 represented a 20.9 percent reduction in private sector bad debt for the year. (Source: "Value of Third-Party Debt Collection to the U.S. Economy in 2007: Survey and Analysis," PricewaterhouseCoopers, June 2008.)
  • There are approximately 6,500 collection agencies operating the United States. (Source: MarketData Enterprises, U.S. Collection Agencies: An Industry Analysis, February 2006.)
  • Counting third-party collectors and creditors' in-house collectors together, the accounts receivable management industry employs 434,000 collectors and is expected to add 23 percent to staffing rolls between 2006 and 2016. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2008-2009 edition.)
  • U.S. collection agencies earned $17.5 billion in 2007. (Source: "Value of Third-Party Debt Collection to the U.S. Economy in 2007: Survey and Analysis," PricewaterhouseCoopers, June 2008.)
  • Including business purchases of third-party collection agencies and personal spending by their owners and employees, the industry directly and indirectly supported between 300,000 and 420,000 American jobs with a payroll ranging between 11.5 billion and 15.9 billion in 2007. (Source: "Value of Third-Party Debt Collection to the U.S. Economy in 2007: Survey and Analysis," PricewaterhouseCoopers, June 2008.)
  • The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), the primary federal law regulating third-party collection agencies, was enacted in 1977 with the support of ACA to protect consumers from unfair and abusive collection practices. (Source: A Guide to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.)
  • Female collectors outnumber males nearly two-to-one. (Source: 2008 Benchmarking & Agency Operations Survey, ACA International, January 2008.)
  • Annual compensation (including base salary and commissions) for an entry-level collector on average ranges between $22,477 and $36,507. (Source: Salary.com. Viewed January 21, 2010.)

Back to Statistics index page

Top of Page