Back to School: Protect your Child’s Identity

It’s that time of year again.  It doesn’t matter whether you are a parent who’s dreading summer’s end and your kiddos’ hiatus from school or one who has been counting down the days until you are able to usher them back into the classroom, everyone needs to protect their children’s personal and sensitive information.

This morning I read a blog written by Colleen Tressler at the Federal Trade Commission who shared some great tips for keeping your child’s personal information safe.

Her recommendations:

  • Safeguard your child’s Social Security number

Don’t carry your kid’s Social Security card around with you and don’t share it unless you know and trust the other party.  Personally, I take this a little further.  Just because someone asks for your or your child’s Social Security number doesn’t mean they really need it.  I know from experience many entities, if challenged, understand your reticence and will allow you to leave that information blank or only require you to supply the last 4 digits.

  • Know your rights under FERPA

The Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act protects the privacy of student records. FERPA requires schools to notify parents about their school directory policy.  It gives you the right to opt out of sharing directory information with third parties.

  • Limit what kids share online

Teach your youngsters not to post their name, address or full date of birth on social media. Take this further by being cognizant yourself and teaching your kids that many “games” you see on social media are actually phishing expeditions. I recently saw a post on Facebook that asked, ‘how many different maiden names (generations) can you come up with on your family tree?’ I was surprised how many people got sucked into playing and supplied a lengthy list. Were they having a fun social interaction or providing a scammer the answer(s) to a common security question?

  • Use Strong passwords on smartphones, tablets or laptops

Teach the importance of changing passwords and not sharing them. There is a great site we use here and at home https://howsecureismypassword.net/ .  Type in your password and it tells you how long it would take a computer to crack it. 

  • Use a shredder                                                                                                                                                            
  • Check whether your child has a credit report before they turn 16

If there is one—and it has errors due to fraud or misuse—you’ll have to correct it before your child applies for a job, seeks a loan for tuition or a car.

I know some of you are rolling your eyes and wondering if all of this is really necessary. But here’s the thing, according to the 2018 Child Identity Fraud Studyconducted by Javelin Strategy & Research more than 1 million children were victims of identity theft or fraud in 2017; resulting in $2.6 billion of total losses and $540 million in out-of-pocket costs to families!

If that’s not bad enough, I read in a cnbc.com article, “Identity theft isn’t just an adult problem. Kids are victims too” by Kelli B Grant that thieves are more likely to exploit kids’ information. Among the 58 percent of people notified of last year’s data breaches who became victims of fraud, 39 percent were minors and 19 percent were adults.

Synthetic identity theft, a type of identity fraud that creates new identities using a combination of real (Social Security number) and fictitious (name and birth date) information is also wreaking havoc for kids and their parents. Some fraudsters have even built identities around SSNs that haven’t even been assigned yet.  Can you imagine if you found out the Social Security number issued to your baby had earnings already associated with it along with a five-year credit history? Scary, right?!

According to the Child Identity Fraud study 66 percent of kids victimized by identity theft (or fraud) are 7 years old or younger. And while it might seem like a no-brainer that your kindergartner wasn’t responsible for the thousands of dollars’ worth of credit card debt assigned to them, experts say getting to the bottom of identity theft and fraud is just as complicated for kids as it is for adults.  The same hoops need to be jumped through.

The fact that 60 percent of child identity theft or fraud victims personally know the perpetrator complicates things even further. The same is not true for adults; only 7 percent know their thief personally.

I know, it’s not as if parents don’t already have enough to deal with keeping their kids safe, but child identity theft is a growing issue. We need to be as vigilant about protecting their identities as we’ve become protecting our own.

A. Alliance Collection Agency, Inc. is a full service, licensed accounts receivable management and debt collection agency providing highly effective, customized one on one management and recovery solutions for our business partners.  Founded in northern Illinois in 2005, we have been proudly improving the bottom-line on behalf of our business partners in and around Chicagoland for over 13 years.

Wasting Away in the Pit of the Perfect

Last week we published a blog written by my colleague Harry Stoll focusing on the optimal time to turn placements over to a collection agency.

Harry shared some very good guidelines to help the process, but sometimes it just boils down to someone waiting for the ‘perfect’ time.  Rarely is there a ‘perfect’ time to do anything, however.  Optimal, yes.  Timely, yes.  Perfect, highly unlikely.

Perfectionism as an attribute can be a blessing and a curse.  In the medical profession perfect is the goal and often times ‘good enough’ just does not cut it.  However, in other businesses, close is often the best choice as the penalty for waiting is lost business, market share and competitive advantage.

So, when does close enough roll over into too perfect, or perfectionism?

In an article titled “How Perfectionists Can Get Out of Their Own Way” by Alice Boyes, PhD, (Harvard Business Review, read it here) she wrote about ways of mitigating the negative impacts of trying to be perfect.

She writes “…perfectionism can be a double-edged sword. Having high standards and being hardworking can help someone stand out in a crowded field, and their tenacity can help them improve their skills over time.”  Yet these traits also cause perfectionists to “get in their own way.” She lists the following as just a few of the challenges being, working with, or for, a perfectionist can have:

  • Struggling to make decisions or take action: “Perfectionists are motivated to make the absolute best choice — even when doing so isn’t strictly necessary. This can lead to decision paralysis.”

 

  • Worrying excessively about sunk costs: “Since perfectionists tend to ruminate over even tiny mistakes, they’re strongly motivated to attempt to recover situations involving sunk costs…they can spend too [much time] working on marginally productive activities before moving on.”

 

  • Avoiding challenges to avoid failure: “Perfectionists want to feel absolutely ready before taking on challenges. This can lead to holding back from advancement or leadership roles.”

 

  • Applying their high standards to others: Sometimes the “…perfectionist also expects others to conform to their standards…being too demanding can harm relationships and sometimes lead to…being socially excluded because they’re emotionally hard…to deal with.”

 

  • Ruminating about weaknesses, mistakes, and failures: “One reason perfectionists are so strongly motivated to avoid small mistakes is because making them triggers their tendency to ruminate… [this can lead to] irritability and feelings of depression, and can disrupt the person’s performance and relationships.”

 

What can we do about it?  She suggests several things:

 

  • Learn from successes: “The idea of learning from your mistakes is likely to feel too confronting to a perfectionist, and trigger rumination. An alternative is to learn from your successes. By reflecting on the pathways that led to your successes, you’ll be able to see that you achieved a meaningful end despite not doing everything completely flawlessly…”

 

  • Develop heuristics to enable faster decision-making and action taking: “Heuristics or rules of thumb are aimed at producing good decisions most but not all of the time. They help balance the benefits of faster decision-making against any incremental gains you might get from delaying action and continued thinking.”

 

  • Ask yourself “How could I improve by 1%?”: “Because perfectionists want to be flawless, they’re typically dismissive of incremental gains. By looking for how you can improve your behavior by 1%, you’ll start to see that there are easier ways to improve than what you’re imagining.”

 

  • Learn strategies to disrupt rumination: “It’s a lot easier to tolerate making mistakes and having flaws if you know how to curb rumination. Notice when you are starting to mull over something, and ask yourself if obsessing over it is really helping you. Often, rumination feels like problem-solving — but it isn’t. If your thoughts are just going in circles, or you’re noticing that your rumination is putting you into a bad mood, let it go.”

 

There is, of course, no perfect plan of action.  We are human after all.  Sometimes it is just better to try ‘ready, fire, aim’ to achieve at least some progress. And after all, since none of us is perfect, progress over perfection is often the best path to follow.

A. Alliance Collection Agency, Inc. is a full service, licensed accounts receivable management and debt collection agency providing highly effective, customized one on one management and recovery solutions for our business partners.  Founded in northern Illinois in 2005, we have been proudly improving the bottom-line on behalf of our business partners in and around Chicagoland for over 13 years.

Image provided by: : Alpha Stock Images – http://alphastockimages.com/  Original Author: Nick Youngson  – http://www.nyphotographic.com/

 

Successful Debt Collectors Need Both Left Brain and Right Brain Skills

Customers can act as fuel for a business, providing the revenue necessary to support success and growth. When customers fail to make full or even partial payments on goods or services it can adversely impact cash flow and hinder progress. Some small businesses, of course, will respond to these unpaid invoices with in-house efforts.  While others, to maximize resources, turn over these unpaid accounts to a reputable licensed collection agency served by experienced debt collectors.

If you are a small business that wants to go it alone, I have some advice for you regarding your collectors. Of course, there is so much more to a collection agency than the collection staff, but today’s blog is going to give you some insight into what we look for in a collector.

As a business development representative at United Credit Service for 4 years, I’ve witnessed firsthand how our experienced, certified Professional Collection Specialists liquidate unpaid customer invoices. I sell collection services to creditors oftentimes from the collection floor. When out there, I’ll sit right next to some of the debt collectors at UCS. And while I may not hear all of their conversations, I have had the privilege of learning about the characteristics and skills all of our collectors have in common.  What I’ve come to understand is that debt collectors are a group of extraordinary people who possess a wide variety of both hard and soft skills, and the importance of each individual debt collector cannot be overstated. Not only is their work vital to  recovering bad debt, they are also the face, or should I say the voice of the company when speaking with consumers.  Here is a short list of some of the diverse left and right brain skills needed to be a successful collector.

Hard (left brain) Skills: Since debt collection is heavily regulated, debt collectors must possess in-depth knowledge of all federal and state laws that govern debt collection practices and must be able to implement these laws as well as all policies and procedures dictated by UCS and the clients we serve. For efficiency, they must have the ability to navigate and utilize the various collection software programs and payment portals we use, and document outcomes (live) while conversing with and obtaining payments from consumers.

But to be truly successful in the sensitive art of debt collection, collectors must also possess exceptional emotional intelligence, also known as soft (right brain) skills, and have the ability to achieve the important balance between results and relationships. They must be great conversationalists and diplomats because they not only represent UCS, but also the clients we are serving. For each call to run smoothly and ultimately end in payment we’ve learned that if our collectors are good communicators (using those right brain, soft skills) listen intently to each debtor, are friendly, and exhibit a positive attitude they will build a rapport and earn the debtor’s trust which will allow them (the debtor) to open up and discuss the sensitive financial issues they might be facing. A good collector needs to be able to evaluate whether it’s an ability to pay issue or a willingness to pay issue; then they will be in a better position to overcome objections and offer repayment solutions that are acceptable to both the client and debtor.

Good debt collectors have ‘short memories’ and a personality that allows them to rebound quickly after a brief setback. When dealing with financial issues, emotions can sometimes run high and tough conversations are almost inevitable in our business.  In order to provide all consumers with the highest quality customer service possible, our collectors are taught how to stay professional and quickly turn these calls around with compassion and tact.

We’ve been using this positive, kind approach to debt collection for over 65 years and it has been proven to be successful by our higher than industry average collection rates.

At A. Alliance, well-qualified debt collectors are just one of the essential cogs needed to keep a revenue cycle moving smoothly—but certainly an important one. Hopefully these insights will help you understand what type of skills your own employees need to possess to be successful collectors.  If you want to go it alone, I wish you nothing but success. But if you decide you need some help, we at A. Alliance Collection Agency and other agencies like us, are here, ready and able to help.

A. Alliance Collection Agency, Inc. is a full service, licensed accounts receivable management and debt collection agency providing highly effective, customized one on one management and recovery solutions for our business partners.  Founded in northern Illinois in 2005, we have been proudly improving the bottom-line on behalf of our business partners in and around Chicagoland for over 13 years.

 

image provided by: Chickensaresocute