The Outside Collection Agency Your Partner in Success

1
The Outside Collection AgencyYour Partner
in Success

• Presented by Toni Downs
• Risk Management Analyst
• Citizens Gas Coke Utility
• Indianapolis, IN
• October 2006

2
Overview

• About Citizens Gas
• Monitoring Data Quality
• Champion/Challenger Competition
• Incentive Programs
• Warehousing Accounts
• Exchange Database
• Conclusion

3
Citizens Gas Background

• Citizens Gas is a Public Charitable Trust
• Serving 266,000 natural gas customers in
  Indianapolis, Indiana
• Operating a Steam and Chilled Water System
• Operating an Industrial Coke Plant
• 7 Wholly Owned Diverse Subsidiaries
• 5 Jointly Owned Diverse Subsidiaries

4
Monitoring Data Quality

• Social Security Number - 93
• Mailing Address 41
• Employer 96
• Home Phone 95
• Work Phone 49
• Co-Applicant 24
• Co-Applicant SSN 21
• Co-Applicant Employer 17
• Co-Applicant Phone 7

5
Champion/Challenger Competition

• Competition between two 1st Placement Agencies
• Each agency receives 1/3 of our accounts and they
  compete for the remaining 1/3
• The agency with the highest netback gets the
  remaining 1/3
• The measurement period is 6 months of recoveries
  on 3 months of placements, which could result in
  a new winner every 3 months

6
Incentive Programs

• Christmas Shopping on Citizens Gas
• 125 Simon Mall Gift Certificate for each
  collector reaching their goal
• Night Out on Citizens Gas
• Dinner and movie for each collector reaching
  their goal (valued at 125)
• Bonus Commission
• Additional 10 commission for all collectors if
  overall goal is met

7
Warehousing vs. 2nd Placement

• Pilot on placements in September 2005 and
  recoveries through February 2006
• Netback was 1.21 percentage points higher on the
  warehoused accounts
• Benefits of Warehousing vs. 2nd Placement
• Commission is reduced substantially
• Produces higher netback
• Debt is never removed from credit report
• Reduction in administrative work

8
Warehousing vs. Internal Credit Bureau Reporting

• Benefits of Warehousing vs. Internal Credit
  Bureau Reporting
• Reduction in administrative work
• Recalling accounts from the agency and sending a
  file to the Bureaus
• Calls from mortgage companies, customers, etc.
• Initial system set-up
• Debt is never removed from credit report

9
Exchange Database

• 45 Member Companies (utility telecom)
• Duke, ATT, Sprint, Verizon, Comcast, etc.
• Provides updated address information to the
  agency
• Estimated Net Annual Savings - 104,000

10
Conclusion

• Helping Outside Collection Agencies (OCAs)
  Succeed
• Provide them with quality data they can use
• Incentive to collect in order to keep the
  majority of our accounts and to receive the
  highest possible commission
• Motivation to collect through incentive programs
• Result
• Increased collections from OCAs results in a
  decrease in write off

11
Questions