OPTIONAL SECONDARY COLLECTION SERVICE
Why is it important to have an option?
e-CAP is a full service check collection agency and offers electronic and secondary collections. Some of our school clients take advantage of the OPTIONAL feature of our check recovery service by selecting to NOT use conventional secondary “hard” collections. e-CAP’s conventional collections are performed by an affiliate legal firm that specializes in collecting non-NSF checks (stop payment, closed account, etc.). Because of the nature of these returned items, collection is more difficult and more costly. The collection methods and fees are often similar to those used by your local District Attorney.
We prefer to educate our prospective school clients so they can make an informed decision with respect to secondary collections.
Why do some school districts opt to NOT use secondary collections?
The more aggressive collection methods involving phone calls and letters are sometimes considered embarrassing and abrasive for parents. The fees associated with collection by e-CAP’s legal affiliate, just like your local DA, can sometimes be higher than the state allowed collection fee associated with electronic check recovery. This is not always the case. In Texas, for example, the fees are NOT higher for secondary collections. In Texas the state allowed fee is $30 whether collected electronically or by secondary.
Question: What checks are collected by secondary?
Answer: All non-NSF checks (closed account, stop payment, forgery, etc.) as well as NSF checks that are not recovered after two electronic debits.
Question: What happens to the checks when a school district opts to NOT use secondary collections?
Answer: The check arrives at e-CAP’s processing center and is scanned like every other check. This means that the check is reported via the daily Notification Report and the data appears online (with data retention for 7 years). If it is a non-NSF check, it is immediately return to the client. If an NSF check, it is returned after attempts to recover the funds electronically prove unsuccessful.
Question: Will this create additional work for school staff?
Answer: If you do NOT opt to use our secondary collection service, uncollected checks will eventually be returned to the district, which means additional work for your staff. However, we can offer suggestions that will minimize the work for your staff in the form of our written “Check Collection Business Model”, taking from the recent success story of Frisco ISD. At the beginning of the summer break in May 2004, of 360 bad checks received during the school year, only one (1) check was not collected. These impressive results were accomplished by combining e-CAP’s recovery of NSF checks with Frisco ISD’s centralized process for collecting non-NSF checks, and we can share the process Frisco ISD uses to achieve these results.
Final note: Many of our school clients use secondary collections. They do so with no complaints. We do not mean to suggest that parents will complain if this option is selected. We only want you to understand that the feature is optional and why several school districts do not use secondary collections.
