That’s up 6.2 percent from the previous record of $13.5 billion for the 12-month period ending September 2008, clear evidence of the worsening economy.

The number of accounts in collection rose to almost 9.2 million in 2008, from almost 8.9 million in 2007, a 2.1 percent increase for the year.

While the number of accounts and amounts continue to climb, the sour economy and increase bankruptcy filings are making it very difficult to recoup the money, collection firms say.

“(Association) members are negotiating a greater number of payment plans for the liquidation of delinquent debt as business debtors are facing a cash flow crunch,” association executive director Emil Hartleb said. Members expect more accounts and more difficultly making collections through the second quarter.

Asked what business owners can do to improve collections, Hartleb suggested:

• Be prepared to negotiate longer payment plans with delinquent and slow-paying customers

• Keep payments on a weekly or biweekly basis so you are in more frequent contact with the delinquent customer and on top of the situation

• Get the payment plan in writing. Be sure that any agreement confirms the amount owed and that there are no offsets against the account to avoid any controversy should litigation become necessary, and

• If the customer defaults and won’t take steps or cannot take steps to resume payments, don’t delay review of the account for placement with a collection agency.

Sacramento Business Journal

• 29,960 bankruptcy filings were recorded for the first three quarters of 2008, which exceeded full year 2007 filings totaling 28,137.
• Business bankruptcy filings have increased in the third quarter 2008 by 61% compared to third quarter 2007.
• Chapter 11 business bankruptcy filings in the third quarter have increased 76% to 2,485 when compared to 2007 filings.
• Chapter 7 bankruptcy filings in the third quarter have increased by 65% to 7,927 compared to the third quarter 2007 filings.

 In the current economy debt pools have increased and cash flow has decreased, which in itself justifies the importance of an EARLY DETECTION policy. This would increase the chances of collection recoveries, as accounts destined for collection would be placed earlier.  There has been a credit grantor shift in the increased use of “credit agreements” as opposed to “credit applications”. It is not uncommon for a credit grantor to use a credit application when granting a small credit limit to where if the limit were written off as uncollectable there would be no impact on the credit grantor. Credit agreements are being used when the risk of loss would be too much to bear. 

If any of our clients would like to know more about credit agreements as opposed to credit applications, please feel free to email us about this subject matter.

 info@millenniumcollections.com

Although agencies are chasing down more late bills on behalf of doctors, banks, landlords and others, their revenue isn’t growing because delinquent customers are having a harder time coming up with the cash.

As a result, even collection agencies are hurt by the recession.

“You have to make more calls and contact more people to get the same amount of money,” said Tracey Farrar, vice president and chief operating officer of Upstate Collection Center Inc. in Niskayuna.

Brian Dunleavy, vice president of TCAR Inc., a collection agency in Burnt Hills, said company revenue is probably down compared to a year ago.

“People tend to think our business is booming,” Dunleavy said, “It’s not true. Car sales are down. Banks aren’t lending money. Therefore, there is not the extent of bad debt that people expect.”

Bad debt increased nationwide from 2005 to 2007.

In 2007, private businesses in the United States charged off $152.5 billion in bad debt to collection agencies, compared to $141 billion in 2005, according to studies by PricewaterhouseCoopers that were commissioned by the Association of Credit and Collection Professionals, a trade group in Minneapolis.

Collectors recovered about $40 billion to the businesses in both 2005 and 2007. The studies are done every two years.

There are about 4,500 collection agencies in the country. They generally make money one of two ways.

Some earn a commission for each bill they collect. Others buy a bulk amount of debt at a fixed price and try to collect as much as possible.

Commission rates vary widely.

“There’s no hard and fast percentage that everyone uses,” said John Nemo, a spokesman for the trade group, which represents 3,500 collection agencies.

At Upstate Collection in Niskayuna, the family-owned firm has about 200 clients that are actively placing new accounts, Farrar said.

The firm has about a dozen employees making phone calls and sending letters to delinquent payers.

Farrar began noticing an uptick in new accounts at the end of last summer.

Doctors say more patients aren’t making their co-payments. Credit unions say more people are late paying loans. Landlords, including owners of upscale apartment complexes, are having more problems with tenants.

“These people are moving out in the middle of the night because they cannot afford these rents anymore and are breaking leases,” Farrar said.

At TCAR in Burnt Hills, Dunleavy said more doctors and businesses are clamping down on the credit they extend. That, in turn, will limit the number of new accounts the agency gets at its 24 offices in the Northeast.

Another trend he has noticed is more companies are willing to reduce or forgive debts because of a hardship. More settlements are also being offered to resolve outstanding bills.

“Some clients are softening their approach to the whole process,” he said.

A&D Reprographics, a Denver, Co. provider of printing, 3-D modeling and related services, merged with ABC Imaging of Washington, D.C. for an undisclosed amount. 

Adherex, a Durham, N.C. development-stage drug developer, will be delisted next week from trading on the New York Stock Exchange after failing to meet listing requirements. The company will continue to trade shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc., the Sunnyvale, Ca. maker of semiconductor chips, said it plans to lop off 1,100 positions, or about 9% of its workforce, and cut the pay of managers, salaried workers and hourly staff.

Air Wisconsin Airlines Corp., a privately-held Appleton, Wi. carrier, reported that its traffic for December fell 5%–to about 147 million revenue passenger miles.

AK Steel Corp.. West Chester, Oh., said that the United Steelworkers of America employees at its AK Tube LLC unit in Walbridge, Oh. okayed a new labor contract.

Ametek Inc., a Paoli, Pa. maker of electromechanical gear, has begun a restructuring program that calls for closing some factories and reducing its payroll. While details on the facilities and number of jobs involved were not revealed, Ametek did say it hopes to cut expenses by $75 million this year. The realignment resulted in fourth quarter restructuring charge of at least $38 million.

Balfour Beatty Communities, a privately-held Newtown Square, Pa. firm, invested $142 million for an interest in two phases of a Texas military-housing project.

Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, a law firm in Philadelphia, Pa., trimmed an undisclosed number of staffers at a dozen of its offices.

Belk Inc., the privately-held Charlotte, N.C.-based department store chain, will slash compensation for about twenty of its top executives by as much as 40% for this year and next, amid the sagging retail sector. Belk will also trim bonuses, suspend contributions to a retirement fund and reorganize some of its stores. In its third quarter, Belk lost more than $23 million, more than triple its loss in the year-earlier period. Sales slumped 8%–to $741 million, including a nearly 10% drop in same-store sales.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan said that it will trim its payroll by as many as 1,000 jobs, which would amount to more than 10% of its workforce. The firm is also asking for some rate increases.

Bunge North America, a St. Louis, Mo. operating unit of grain and oils company Bunge Ltd. of White Plains, N.Y., reduced its 2008 earnings expectations to just over $1 billion, citing a decline in demand for soybean meal and other products. Back in the fall Bunge was looking at earnings of around $1.6 billion. 

Capital One Financial Corp., McLean, Va., said that it charged off more than $450 million of credit-card loans and over $100 million in auto loans in December.

Charles Schwab Co., while trimming its overall workforce, said that it hopes to add 500 new jobs at its operations in Colorado within the next two years. Schwab, San Francisco, Ca., is a brokerage firm.

Charter Communications Inc.’s CCH I Holdings LLC and Charter Communications Holdings LLC units won a grace period, until 2/15, regarding missed interest payments of almost $74 million. The St. Louis, Mo. company said that the note defaults, related to $1.1 billion in debt, will not trigger defaults on other debt.

Chrysler Financial LLC, the lending arm of Chrysler LLC, will get an emergency loan of $1.5 billion from the Treasury Department, with the first $100 million installment already arrived at Chrysler Financial’s door. The money, deposited in a Chrysler special purpose entity, will go toward financing consumer loans. The auto-loan company, trying to provide more funding to boost Chrysler’s auto sales, has complained that many potential customers haven’t been able to qualify for loans because of tougher borrowing restrictions.

Citigroup Inc. wants to sell its Nikko Cordial Securities brokerage operations in Japan, saying in a recently announced restructuring plan that the unit will be classified as a noncore asset. Putting Nikko Cordial up for sale underscores the seriousness of Citigroup’s financial situation, considering that the company finalized its acquisition of Nikko less than a year ago. Only a few days earlier Citigroup said that its losses soared to $8.3 billion in the fourth quarter, its fifth-consecutive quarter in the red. The net loss stemmed from a $10.2 billion loss at its investment-banking operations, which cratered under writedowns of bad loans and securities. Results would have been even worse were it not for a $3.9 billion gain from the sale of its retail-banking unit in Germany and a $2 billion accounting benefit. Meanwhile, CEO Vikram Pandit provided some details on the bank’s plans to break itself up. The Manhattan, N.Y. banking giant’s noncore businesses will be put in a single Citi Holdings division while its credit-card, investment banking and other banking operations will be grouped together under a supergroup that will go by the company’s older name, Citicorp. Two questions by analysts are whether Citi Holdings will continue to drag down the rest of the company’s results and whether the company will have to raise more capital.

CKE Restaurants Inc. of Carpinteria, Ca., the operator of the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. chains, sold eleven Hardee’s locations in Missouri to Rising Stars LLC for an undisclosed amount. The sale wraps up a franchising program that CKE started almost two years ago.

Clear Channel Communications Inc. is laying off 1,500 employees, amounting to 7% of its workforce. Many of the jobs lost will be sales jobs. The layoffs, in conjunction with other moves, are aimed at cutting $400 million in expenses. Clear Channel, the nation’s biggest radio and outdoor-ad company in terms of revenue, will probably replace some local programming with national radio programs.

ConocoPhillips, the oil giant, said it will record a whopping $34 billion charge for its fourth quarter, at the same time announcing that it will lay off more than 1,300 workers, 4% of its payroll, and cut its capital budget for 2009 by 18% from last year. Some $25 billion of the charges are for goodwill impairment related to certain exploration and production assets following acquisitions in recent years. Another $7 billion in charges are directed toward its one-fifth interest in Lukoil OAO, the troubled Russian oil company. ConocoPhillips, Houston, Tx., has a market capitalization of $74 billion.

Cycle Country Accessories Corp., a Spencer, Ia. maker of accessories for all-terrain vehicles, reported a fiscal net loss of $360,000. Revenue increased 23%–to $17.5 million. 

Foley Hoag, a Boston, Ma. law firm, reduced its payroll by more than thirty positions, or 6% of its workforce, amid the weak economy.

Forever 21 Inc., a Los Angeles, Ca. retailer of fashion for teen girls and young women, is entering the Washington, D.C. market by opening a store there by the summer.

Handi Quilter, a North Salt Lake City, Ut. provider of quilting machines and related products, has been acquired by Hanover Partners, a private-equity firm, for an undisclosed amount. 

Heartland Inc., a Cumberland Gap, Tn. steel manufacturer, wants to develop a service center in Columbus, Oh., where it recently bought thirty-seven acres of land. The firm will start up with about 60,000 square feet of operating space and expand that to as much as 200,000 square feet within a few years. After losing money in 2007, in its first three quarters of 2008 the company reported $1.4 million in profit on revenue of $15.6 million.

Hertz Global Holdings Inc., the car-rental giant, will trim its payroll by 4,000 jobs, or 12% of its worldwide workforce.

InterDigital Inc., a King of Prussia, Pa. wireless-communications technology developer, said that South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. agreed to pay it $400 million to settle a longstanding patent-licensing battle.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Manhattan, N.Y., will spend about $300 million to rebrand its Washington Mutual operations in California, where it will rename more than 700 WaMu bank branches that it bought as Chase locations. Morgan will spend another $75 million to open another twenty of its Chase branches.

Johnson Controls Inc., the Milwaukee, Wi. maker of auto products and building systems, reported a first quarter net loss of $608 million on a 23% drop in revenue–to $7.3 billion.

Kansas City Southern Railway Co. initiated an offer to repurchase $200 million in debt, hoping to refinance it at lower terms.

Landry’s Restaurants Inc., Houston, Tx., altered its bank credit facility, hoping to float $270 million in senior notes as part of a debt refinancing.

Macy’s Inc., the Cincinnati, Oh.-based operator of 850 department stores, is combining its four regional offices into two. The retailer added that it might even further restructure its operations as it continues looking for ways to reduce costs.

Maritz Inc., a Fenton, Mo. sales and marketing services provider, set up a holding company called Maritz Holdings that will manage its business, joint ventures and other develop interests.

Meade Instruments Corp., an Irvine, Ca. maker of telescopes, reported a third quarter net loss of $2.8 million on a 54% drop in revenue–to $23.4 million. The results included $1.6 million loss related to brand sales and restructuring.

MetroPCS Communications Inc., Dallas, Tx., is making a $300 million senior-note offering to institutional investors, intending to use proceeds for working capital, capital spending and liquidity needs for the future.

Motorola Inc.’s recent announcement that it will cut 4,000 more jobs, mostly at its cellphone division, raises further questions about the fate of the unit. While the layoffs could save Motorola $700 million this year, some analysts wonder whether the company should be worried about slashing costs when it’s trying to revive its faltering cellphone business. Motorola, Schaumburg, Il., eventually wants to spin off the cellphone business, but one observer has commented that Motorola has to stabilize the division and improve its development of new products before it can think about spinning it off.

New York Times Co. is reportedly close to arranging a $250 million investment from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu to ease its finances. The Manhattan, N.Y. newspaper publisher has been struggling with weak ad sales and debt deadlines coming due. Among other moves to bolster its finances, the company has put its Boston Red Sox holdings up for sale and said it would borrow $225 million against its headquarters building.

NovaStar Financial Inc. in Kansas City, Mo. has proposed to settle a class-action lawsuit for $7.5 million. The litigation alleged that NovaStar misled its investors. A hearing on the settlement is scheduled for 4/14.

Oscient Pharmaceuticals Corp. and some affiliates sued Lupin Pharmaceuticals of Baltimore, Md. and its India-based parent company for patent infringement. Oscient, based in Waltham, Ma., is a generic drug company.

Pfizer Inc., the New York-based pharmaceuticals firm, is reportedly planning to lay off up to 2,400 sales workers, a third of its sales force, as it looks for ways to operate more efficiently. The job cuts are in line with a Pfizer strategy to split up its commercial business into smaller and more independent units. In the past two years, Pfizer has cut more than 15,000 jobs overall.

Pinnacle Airlines Corp., Memphis, Tn., will buy fifteen Q400 aircraft in connection with an agreement between its Colgan Air Inc. unit and Texas-based Continental Airlines. The planes have a list value of $432 million and should be delivered beginning in August of next year.

Pizza Hut Inc. is selling fifty-one of its Pizza Hut restaurants in the St. Louis, Mo. area to NPC International Inc. of Kansas City, Mo., which is the world’s biggest Pizza Hut franchisee, in a cash transaction valued at $14.4 million.

PPG Industries Inc., a Pittsburgh, Pa. maker of paints, reported its fourth quarter net income sank 64%–to $71 million. Revenue rose 2%–to $3.2 billion. For the year, net income fell 35%–to $538 million, on a 30% increase in revenue–to $15.8 billion. The quarter included a $5 million gain while the year’s results included an extra expense of $167 million.

Proton Laboratories Inc., an Alameda, Ca. biotech firm that makes clean water systems, hopes to expand its business, saying it opened a sales and marketing office in Corona, Ca. to serve areas in the southern part of the state as well as in Arizona and Nevada.

Prudential Manor Homes, Colonie, N.Y., will shutter a sales office in Latham, N.Y. in a move to reduce overhead expenses.

Raving Brands Inc., hoping to focus on its emerging restaurants and to develp new locations, sold its Shane’s Rib Shack and Plant Smoothie concepts to Edmonds Capital LLC for an undisclosed amount. The Shane’s chain has eighty-four locations while Planet Smoothie has 128 stores.

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc.’s shares took a sharp dive in recent trading after the Greenwood Village, Co. restaurant operator announced that it will cease advertising on nationwide cable television. The firm also recently said it would make a cash tender offer for employee stock options, a move that will result in extra charges of $4.5 million.

Reebok International Ltd., the Canton, Ma.-based maker and seller of athletic shoes and other products, will trim its payroll by 300 positions at its operations in Massachusetts, Indiana, Latin America and Canada.

Richline Group Inc., a Mount Vernon, N.Y. maker and distributor of precious metal jewelry, wrapped up talks for the exclusive worldwide distribution rights for all of Tru-Kay Manufacturing Inc. products. Tru-Kay is headquartered in Lincoln, R.I. and Richline is a unit of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. of Omaha, Ne.

Royal Bank of Scotland PLC warned that its losses could surge to more than $41 billion for 2008, which would be the largest loss ever posted by a U.K. company. The bank cited goodwill impairment charges of between $22 billion and $29 billion, while writedowns for its exposure to the credit markets came in at about $11.8 billion.

Schwan Food Co., Marshall, Mn., cut more than fifty jobs as it continues paring its staff. Over the past year Schwan has cut about 2,200 jobs.

Six Flags Over Georgia and Six Flags White Water announced plans to hire more than 2,400 seasonal workers at the two Atlanta, Ga. amusement parks.

SolFocus Inc., a Mountain View, Ca. developer of photovoltaic systems, raised more than $47 million in a third round of financing. SolFocus will use the money to speed up expansion of its manufacturing operations.

Spatial Networks Inc., a Clearwater, Fl. provider of Web-based applications, expanded by acquiring TrekServ LLC in Tampa for an undisclosed amount. The two companies have been partners in recent years.

Sun-Times Media Group Inc. investor Davidson Kempner Capital Management LLC won a required number of consents, indicating support for the hedge fund’s plan to redo the Chicago, Il. newspaper firm’s board of directors. While Davidson Kempner owns almost 6% of Sun-Times Media, the firm has been asking its shareholders to rebuff Davidson Kempner’s overtures.

TLC Health Network, Irving, N.Y., is trimming its workforce by thirty positions and reducing other staffers’ working hours as it tries to deal with a $3.6 million deficit.

Treasury Department Federal Credit Union in Washington, D.C. is merging with financially-troubled Christian Federal Credit Union, also in D.C., for an undisclosed amount. 

University of Massachusetts has trimmed some of its staff and moved certain administration and other operations from Boston to nearby Shrewsbury in a cost-cutting move.

Verenium Corp., a Cambridge, Ma. biomass-based ethanol maker, plans to begin building a commercial-scale ethanol plant this year in Florida, at a cost of between $250 million and $300 million.

WellPoint Inc., the big Indianapolis, In. insurer, announced 1,500 layoffs, 3.5% of its staff, as it adapts to fewer health plans amid rising unemployment. The company is also asking for rate increases.

 Act

Our collectors here at Millennium Collections are polished.  They are succesful because they think of ways to solve problems.  Our collectors understand the behavior of companies and individuals under the gun as well as the impatients of some of their creditors.  Our collectors ask the right questions, negotiate the right terms, listen carefully, and seek solutions.  Many times our customers do not represent the debtor’s most essential invoices and therefore refuse to pay until cash flow is improved.  Debtors typically overestimate their ability to repay a debt and our collectors waste no time in assessing those realities.

These facts distinguish our agency from the rest.  IF you have outstanding receivables amongst a few or a sea of your customers, we can help.  With an in-house legal department and the ability to bring suit in the local jurisdiction of the debtor - should our professional collectors determine that such a radical step is necessary - we provide our customers with everything they need to recover their receivables. - Jonathan Rose, founder of Millennium Collections and lead attorney

The CFO Summit is organized and moderated by Marcus Evans, a leading provider and promoter of strategic conferences among focused sectors of business, they employ 3500 people in 24 countries around the world to provide world class business intelligence services and information to assist in strategic and effective decision-making. The company boasts 95% of the Fortune 1000 companies as their clients. Attendance at the summit is limited to the executives of companies with an aggregate annual revenue of over $750 million. Only the best and brightest minds are invited to participate.

Marcus Evans partners with a select number of solution providers to give their clients a one-stop shop for cutting-edge technologies, and products. The company extends invitations only to those providers that meet a number of rigorous criteria. Nicole Bruce, Director of Sales at Marcus Evans notes, “Our service providers are considered and ultimately invited to attend the CFO Summit based on their past performance in their industry, reputation, and core client base. We insist that senior executives of each provider be immediately accessible to our clients and provide customizable soup-to-nuts solutions for our clients.” Millennium Collections, a commercial debt-recovery and financial reporting organization, was selected to represent this crucial sector of the business community. As is the policy of each summit hosted by Marcus Evans, only those organizations that are held in the highest regard in their industry are invited to participate in the event. Jason Bocchino, Chief Officer of Operations for Millennium Collections expands, “We are honored to be a part of this event as it continues to solidify our position among the top commercial debt recovery operations in the country.”

Millennium Collections was established in 1997 as an alternative to the typical collection agency. The company remains at the forefront of its industry and empowers its customers through fantastic customer service and innovative client access technologies. All inquiries should be directed to info@millenniumcollections.com.

Where the typical agency collector is impeded by a debtor’s excuses, such as late delivery or defects in unreturned product, our collectors use our own customized approach. Our collectors are taught to deal with these dilatory tactics through the study of actual case files to deal with disputes by the application of commercial law, provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code, secured transactions, and the bankruptcy code. This allows them to overcome and meet objections to payment, while collecting a greater percentage of our client’s accounts. Millennium recovers delinquent receivables on an average of 30-60 days after placement. Our remittance schedule, requiring payment of client’s funds every fifteen days, is faster than any other agency. Why accept anything less than the most qualified first and third party collection source?

Clients with buyer sensitive accounts can also be confident that they are receiving the services of tactful negotiators, not merely overbearing bill collectors.

Millennium is licensed and bonded with private surety bond in the penal amount of $300,000, in addition to the state mandated $50,000 commercial collection agency bond. Our contingency fee structure is industry competitive, considering the higher levels of services provided.

At Millennium Collections Corporation, we treat each client as if they were our only client. We are fully aware that we are measured by the results we provide and that our customer’s reputation must be enhanced each and every time we do business. We get the results you need using only the best methods for your company. Our technology separates us from the competition. See the difference for yourself.