Consumer-friendly Electronic Portal Aids in Debt Collection

As consumers continue to face mounting debt, job loss and other financial difficulties, late payments to creditors and the ensuing collections calls are an added stress many would prefer to avoid.

A new online tool, called LightPay, enables creditors and consumers to communicate about the outstanding debt and allows consumers to determine the repayment options that work best for them, all with the help of a friendly digital avatar.

“When consumers are given time to review their options, they often choose a more aggressive payment schedule than those reached during a stress-filled collections call,” said Matthew Hill, Director of Sales & Marketing at InterProse, creators of LightPay™. “Businesses spend so much time and money to acquire a new customer and when payments slow down or stop, the consumer is often viewed as a liability or regarded as an adversary,” said Hill. “It doesn’t have to be that way. With LightPay, communications can remain open.”

The InterProse Corporation, which introduced electronic payments in 2004, created LightPay to aid small- and medium-sized businesses in collecting past due accounts. Leveraging their enterprise product Ammina® Virtual Agent, LightPay utilizes a friendly, non-threatening avatar-driven interface to guide consumers through the process of reconciling their accounts.

By encouraging the consumer to visit a creditor’s web portal and providing an environment where the consumer feels “safe,” the consumer is more likely to self-manage his/her debt if it can provide relief from collection activity. “The goal for companies is not only to collect the outstanding debt, but to maintain and continue the relationship with that customer,” said Hill. According to Hill, studies show nearly 90 percent of those in debt would prefer an online agent to talking with a live collector.

The InterProse Corporation, located in Vancouver, Washington, is an accounts receivable solutions provider offering web-hosted software solutions for debt collection, healthcare, retail, government, utilities and their third party partners.