Mike Ettus

Born: Huntington Long Island, NY. Graduated Morris Hills High School 1973
Graduated Professional School of Business NJ. 1974
Graduated Zerox Professional Sales School NJ. 1977
Moved to Florida 1978
Automobile business til 2004
Mortgage lender business 2004 – 2008
Fee recovery against timeshare fraud 2008 – present
Opened CCA in 2011

The term collection agency is usually applied to third-party agencies, called such because they were not a party to the original contract. The creditor assigns accounts directly to such an agency on a contingency-fee basis, which usually initially costs nothing to the creditor or merchant, except for the cost of communications. This however is dependent on the individual Service Level Agreement (SLA) that exists between the creditor and the collection agency.

The agency takes a percentage of debts successfully collected; sometimes known in the industry as the "Pot Fee" or potential fee upon successful collection. This does not necessarily have to be upon collection of the full balance; very often this fee must be paid by the creditor if they cancel collection efforts before the debt is collected. The collection agency makes money only if money is collected from the debtor (often known as a "No Collection - No Fee" basis). Depending on the type of debt, the age of the account and how many attempts have already been made to collect on it, the fee could range from 10% to 50% (though more typically the fee is 25% to 40%).

Some agencies offer a flat fee "pre-collection" or "soft collection" service. The service sends a series of increasingly urgent letters, usually ten days apart; instructing debtors to pay the amount owed directly to the creditor or risk a collection action and negative credit report. Depending on the terms of the SLA, these accounts may revert to "hard collection" status at the agency's regular rates if the debtor does not respond.