Case Study

The organisation:

This client is a leading UK University, who has been engaging the services of Controlaccount for in excess of 20 years.

The challenge:

To provide debt recovery services for outstanding tuition fees, accommodation fees and sundry debts owing to the university by former students, based in the UK and overseas. Also, for the recovery of non-student debt on a case specific basis, from collection stages to litigation stages. As students can be highly mobile, frequently changing address - especially if from overseas, the client required the expertise within our in-house trace and investigation team who are highly skilled at recovering debt in overseas jurisdictions.

The difference made:

Operating on a no collection, no fee basis the pre-legal collections team utilised a combination of letter, telephone, email and SMS-based forms of communication to target students owing money. As well as our dedicated client services team, the client used our cloud-based portal ClientWeb to control the entire process from initial referral, issuing instructions to obtaining customised reports. Our experienced trace team were able to locate many individuals who otherwise would have slipped through the net, resulting in successful collection of debts owed. The average balance of placements for this client’s recovery is typically higher than average, and accounts required swift action and close monitoring due to constantly changing circumstances. Key to our procedures, was monitoring the payment behaviour, and adjusting arrangements where necessary to ensure collection in full over the shortest period of time for our client. Pre-litigation reports were also utilised to put the University fully in the picture, allowing for a full investigation into the chances of a successful legal recovery without expending considerable resources. The client utilises all aspects of the Controlaccount service and this has maintained collection success rates over the last three years in excess of 60% on debt placements of 250 accounts per annum. Placements are predominantly UK domiciled (78%) EU, (10%) and rest of the world (12%). Average debt balances are £1,820.00, ranging from £15.00 up to £30,000. Fees are added to selected accounts and recovered as part of our recovery process and offset collection costs. Of our total success rate, 17% is recovered through legal recovery.

What they said:

We have found Controlaccount to be dependable, reliable, trustworthy and highly professional. They have always delivered what we have required, and they work in the best interest of us as a client and treat our customers fairly. We would highly recommend. - Head of Financial Services, leading London university