CBS News Finds Collections is a Growing Field

The national media again took a look at the collection industry, and again came away with a generally balanced view of the challenges the business faces and the benefits it can bring to a community.

Last night, CBS Evening News with Katie Couric ran a story focusing on debt with a look at the Northstar Companies, an agency outside Buffalo, N.Y. Reporter Michelle Miller interviewed Northstar owner Joe Castle and agent Mike Nowak, the top collector at the agency, for a story called “Good Times for Debt Collectors.”

In the piece, Castle said that Northstar’s business has been growing in recent months as credit card debt has risen, and that he expects it to get stronger this summer as consumers have trouble meeting their auto-lease payments.

The story primarily focuses on Nowak who says he brought in more than $500,000 last year and expects to possibly double that this year as credit card debt rises.

Nowak tells Miller that good collectors take the time to listen to debtors. His advice for agents? “A lot of listening. And they’ll tell you what they can do and what they can’t.”

The CBS story follows two reports by the New York Times in March – one looking at debt collection as a growing business, (“The New York Times Praises Collectors on Front Page,” March 14), and the second looking at Buffalo as a center for the collection calling industry (“New York Times Strikes Another Chord for Collectors,” March 21). This month, BusinessWeek ran an analysis of investment opportunities among debt purchasers and collectors (“Bad Times are Good for Debt Collectors”). 

CBS News is also running a Web version of the story, "When the Collector Comes Knocking…"