Our office hours are 8:00am CST – 5:00pm CST Monday – Friday. However, web payments and wire transfers are available twenty-four seven (24/7) and we are available earlier in the mornings and later in the evenings based on customer time zone differences.
If you have any questions pertaining to the status of your accounts, or have any other question, concern, or issue, please call or email our client services department at 847-259-7000 x 115 or clientservices@afm-usa.com. In addition, please notify our client services department in writing if a direct payment is sent to your office. We will then update your account accordingly.
We can accept claims in any matter that you would like to send them. Specifically, we are able to receive accounts on an individual basis through email, facsimile, or our website. Multiple, simultaneous placements (aka: batch assignments) are either sent to us via email, through a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, or we connect to our client’s FTP website, or remotely connect to their system, and extract a file compatible with Microsoft Excel that lists all assigned accounts for that particular day.
AFM attempts to collect the monies owed on an assigned account on a contingency fee basis. Please see AFM’s Published Rate Schedule which, in addition to describing AFM’s pre-litigation contingency fee rates, also describes AFM’s fees in atypical situations such as erroneous placements and account cancellations (aka: withdrawal fees), payments before placement (aka: discovery fees), the assignment of non-sufficient funds (NSF) checks, consumer accounts, second placements, international accounts, litigation forwardings, etc. Please review AFM’s Published Rate Schedule and contact your AFM Sales Rep if you have any questions with respect to our fees.
We utilize the collection software of the industry leader, Columbia Ultimate Business Systems (CUBS). CUBS is SAS 70 certified and is also certified in accordance with the Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements No. 16 (SSAE 16) Type II, meaning that the software is consistently tested and aligns with the top standards in data security. In addition, all data transfers are completed through encrypted software.
Yes, AFM is licensed and bonded. AFM is licensed in all 50 states and is a founding member of the Commercial Collection Agencies of America Association (CCAofA). Through the CCAofA, we have a $300,000 surety bond for the benefit of our clients.
We provide collection services both domestically, in all fifty (50) U.S. states, and internationally
AFM’s Attorney Intervention Collection Program (aka: Immediate Collection) provides a stronger collection and adds enormous value to your collection efforts. From the very first day that we receive a new account for collection, an in-house AFM Attorney will directly work your file and contact the debtor to obtain immediate, voluntary payment on a contingency fee basis. If we do not collect the monies owed to you, then we do not earn a fee. Our lawyers do not litigate. Rather, they solely focus on collection and account resolution by phone, email, facsimile and postal mail. AFM handles each assigned claim with professionalism, the utmost care and decisive action. We attempt to work each new file every single day for three straight days after we receive a new assignment to immediately, directly communicate with the debtor, incite urgency and collect the monies due as quick as possible. The immediate attorney involvement alone subconsciously creates a sense of urgency, so our immediate, persistent and respectful collection pursuits elicit a quicker response and payment. Further, the immediate attorney involvement provides a stronger likelihood to increase the quality of your claim (e.g. obtain a personal guaranty, promissory note, confession of judgment), while we collect the monies owed on your behalf. Also, if necessary, it sets the foundation for a comprehensive investigation to locate the obligor and learn the obligor’s payment capabilities. This will help you make an informed decision when responding to a settlement offer or when deciding whether to forward a claim to local counsel for possible legal action.
At no cost and with your prior, written authorization, AFM will report your debtors' and guarantors' unpaid account balances to the credit bureaus during the first week of the month after 30 days elapsed since you place an account with our office for collections. For example, if you assign a file to AFM for collections on January 15, 2019, AFM will report the debtor’s unpaid balance to the credit bureaus during the first week of March 2019. Once reported, the delinquent mark on the debtor’s credit report will appear as “American Financial Management” within the Significant Derogatory Data section. After the balance was initially reported, AFM will continue to report the up-to-date unpaid balance to the credit bureaus every month, for seven years, until the balance is paid in full. Your credit reporting authorization applies to all future assigned accounts, rather than on an individual account basis.
In order for AFM to report your debtor’s to the credit bureaus, please complete AFM’s Credit Bureau Authorization form and then send the signed form back to our office. AFM’s Credit Bureau Authorization form only needs to be submitted one time, as it will apply to all accounts assigned to our office after we have the signed form on record.
Upon submitting your first collection account, you receive access to AFM’s online client portal (Client Web Access), which is accessible through our website. AFM’s Client Web Access, which is available 24/7, allows you to review all notes, the status and payment history for every account assigned to our office. Moreover, you will be able to view and download many different cumulative reports, such as History, Inventory and Payment Reports. Every report is downloadable in Excel, Word, PDF, CSV or Tab-Delimited.
While AFM does not file the actual lawsuits, AFM has built relationships with attorneys throughout the world to assist your litigation needs. We will only forward a file to a local attorney for potential suit after we receive your written authorization. After we receive your approval, we will forward the account to a local attorney that is a member of the Commercial Law League of America and is licensed, bonded and insured in accordance with the requirements of the association. Thereafter, all communications on the account forwarded to local counsel will involve yourself, AFM and local counsel, together, in one email chain, to ensure we work as a team to get the best result possible. Your local attorney, through AFM, will request monies to cover court costs, which vary based on the jurisdiction, the type and dollar size of your claim. Once legal proceedings conclude, local counsel will provide an accounting of all outlaid court costs.
Yes, AFM maintains a partnership with Experian to provide clients with the analytical tools necessary to manage business risk and maximize profits. Experian products can assist in acquiring creditworthy new customers, monitoring how customers are meeting their financial obligations to the business community and timely identifying customers' deteriorating financial conditions, allowing you to make informed, decisive decisions to minimize losses.
Yes, AFM could contact your customers, as your company, to ensure your customers timely pay invoices and are educated on their payment terms. We can reduce your internal operating costs, while we improve results and grow customer relationships, especially in high volume environments. Our current and recent projects include: assisting a client with first party collections on the client’s computer, telephone and email system from AFM’s office location, sending a customized first-party letter series, performing credit granting activities through Experian and by reviewing and processing Credit Applications and auditing accounts previously closed by a different third-party collection vendor.
Your debtors will be contacted through AFM’s Attorney Intervention Collection Program. If any debtors contact you directly on the accounts that are now in collections, in order to ensure that we maintain our leverage in resolving your matters, please refer these past customers, now debtors, to our collection group at 847-259-4700.
Check, credit card and wire. With respect to submitting payment by check, we can accept physical checks by postal mail or check copies, which we will electronically deposit, by phone, facsimile or email.
AFM can remit collected monies on a per-transaction or on a monthly basis. We typically remit monies on a per-transaction NET basis, however we do have clients that desire monthly NET remittances, along with a remittance statement of invoice. Remittance payments can be sent via wire, ACH, by check to a lockbox or to a physical address. Here is specific detail regarding our per-transaction NET remittance processes:
When we receive a direct payment from the debtor, the check is immediately deposited into our trust account. For clients on a per-transaction, NET remittance basis, we will then remit payment to you, minus our contingency fee, after the check has cleared the debtor’s bank account. If a check comes back non-sufficient funds (NSF), 99% of the time we receive notice within 7 business days after the check is deposited. On the 8th business day, if we have not received any notification from our bank, we assume that the check cleared and remit payment to you on the Friday of the following week. Therefore, you should receive the payment from our office between 21 - 28 days after we secure payment from the debtor.
With respect to providing updates on an individual account basis, there are two different options, with variations of each option.
The first option is AFM sending an initial status report on each account placed after the first time the account is worked. Thereafter, AFM will send additional status reports every two (2) to four (4) weeks, regardless of if there is a substantive update (i.e. settlement offer, dispute, direct payment verification, receipt of a non-sufficient funds check, bankruptcy notification) that requires AFM’s client’s direction. After sixty (60) to ninety (90) days that AFM has assisted on the account, AFM will provide an overall recommendation on the file going forward (i.e. continue to allow AFM to work the account, consider filing a lawsuit, or close as uncollectible). When appropriate, AFM will send a close-out letter on each account.
The second option is AFM providing status updates on an account only when a significant event arises in AFM’s collection efforts that must be disclosed and/or discussed with AFM’s client to assist in our handling of the particular file (i.e. settlement offer, dispute, direct payment verification, receipt of a non-sufficient funds check, bankruptcy notification). If desired, when appropriate, AFM can send an opening and/or closing letter on each account.
With regards to receiving a status update on all accounts in one report, if desired, AFM can send a Total or Active History Report to AFM’s client on a monthly basis. Please contact your AFM Sales Rep for specific details.
In addition, irrespective of the individual account status update option you desire and select, AFM’s client will receive full access to AFM’s Client Web Access, which will allow AFM’s client to view all up-to-date collection notes, the status and payment history for every account assigned to AFM.
Acknowledgment Report: This report, which is generated the same day that new accounts are entered into our collection software, provides a listing of accounts placed, the client reference number, our account number, and the dollar amount assigned.
Recovery Report: Displays the accounts that we have secured monies on, the payment date, and the remittance amount.
Cancel and Return Report: Lists accounts that have been removed from our active collection processes. This report lists the account name, date assigned, principal assigned, cancelled amount and our account number.
Inventory Report (Active and Total Inventories): Discloses accounts placed with our firm and includes the client reference number, our reference number, account name, amount assigned, amount collected and status of each account. This report can be created for all active accounts or for all placed accounts and can also be generated in our online client portal and downloaded to your computer in numerous formats such as Excel, Word, PDF, CSV or Tab-Delimited.
History Report: This statistical report shows the quantity and dollar amounts of assignments, collections, and cancellations, by month, for the last twelve months as well as on an annual basis. This report can also be generated in our online client portal and downloaded to your computer in numerous formats such as Excel, Word, PDF, CSV or Tab-Delimited.
Credit Reporting Service Notification: Displays the accounts that were reported to the Credit Bureaus for the designated month.
AFM reports to Experian, TransUnion, Dun & Bradstreet, and Cortera.
AFM will typically provide you with the option to file a lawsuit on assigned files that involve the following facts:
Principal amount owed is in excess of $7,500.00;
We have not received payment in full, a partial payment or a settlement offer, or the debtor breached an Agreement reached while the account is in collections and debtor communications are not progressing in your best interests;
Debtor business is open and operating;
Debtor does not have severe financial distress or many pending legal matters against them, especially if the cumulative total claimed within the pending legal matters far exceeds the balance owed to your company; and
Your claim is not disputed or the debtor’s dispute, in our opinion, does not have any merit and there is not a concern for a countersuit, as you will have to pay local counsel an hourly fee to defend the same.
Around 60 – 90 days after you assign a file to our office and after we made all possible collection attempts, if we have not secured payment in full, a partial payment or a settlement offer, and debtor communications are not progressing in your best interests, we will either close our file or provide you with the option to forward the file to local counsel for possible legal action. At times, forwarding the file to local counsel for possible legal action might be in your best interests.
Unless your contract has a venue provision and you disclose that you would like us to forward the matter to local counsel in the jurisdiction described within your contract, in order to expedite litigation proceedings and post-judgment execution in the most cost-efficient manner, we will typically forward the prior-authorized file for suit to local counsel in the debtor’s jurisdiction. Therefore, once a judgment becomes final, local counsel can immediately begin post-judgment execution and begin to initiate proceedings to locate, and attach the obtained judgment to, assets in order to satisfy the monies owed.
On the other hand, if a judgment is obtained in a jurisdiction that does not contain any debtor assets, in order to enforce this previously obtained judgment, a new lawsuit may be filed based on the judgment or, in the states that have adopted the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act, a foreign judgment may be registered by filing an exemplified copy of the foreign judgment with the appropriate office of the Court and notifying the debtor of the filing.
Thus, to avoid this additional step, which costs additional monies and time, we typically recommend filing suit in debtor’s domicile.
All communications on the account forwarded to local counsel will involve yourself, AFM and local counsel, together, in one email chain, to ensure we work as a team to get the best result possible. Once we forward the claim to the local attorney that will be filing suit on your behalf, the local attorney almost always sends a written demand letter to the debtor upon opening their file. The attorney will generally not file suit for at least 30 days during which time the attorney will conduct their own investigation. This is required practice for a consumer debt under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and most attorneys use it as their standard procedure, even for commercial accounts that do not fall under FDCPA. Therefore, for that reason, unless anything is needed beforehand, after you authorize AFM to forward an account to local counsel, you should advance its’ file 45 days to obtain the attorney’s litigation recommendation and, if applicable, the necessary affidavit and court costs’ to proceed with filing a lawsuit. Court costs vary based on the jurisdiction, the type and dollar size of your claim. Once legal proceedings conclude, local counsel will provide an accounting of all outlaid court costs.
Each situation varies depending on many factors. Unless a prior settlement is reached beforehand, at the absolute earliest, expect that it will take 6 months – a year to obtain a judgment and execution on the same could last much longer.
Upon learning of a bankruptcy filing, AFM will notify you of the learned filing, provide the applicable bankruptcy case information and typically close its’ file. However, on a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, in which your claim exceeds $10,000.00, AFM can file a proof of claim and monitor the bankruptcy proceedings on your behalf.
