Bill and Account Collectors
Locate and notify customers of delinquent accounts by mail, telephone, or personal visit to solicit payment. Duties include receiving payment and posting amount to customer's account, preparing statements to credit department if customer fails to respond, initiating repossession proceedings or service disconnection, and keeping records of collection and status of accounts.
- Median pay
- $47,030
- Doing it now
- 160,200
- By 2035
- Down 10.4%
- Usually needs
- High school diploma or equivalent
a year
across the country
11,200 openings a year
to get in
What the work involves
- Receive payments and post amounts paid to customer accounts.
- Locate and monitor overdue accounts, using computers and a variety of automated systems.
- Record information about financial status of customers and status of collection efforts.
- Locate and notify customers of delinquent accounts by mail, telephone, or personal visits to solicit payment.
- Confer with customers by telephone or in person to determine reasons for overdue payments and to review the terms of sales, service, or credit contracts.
- Advise customers of necessary actions and strategies for debt repayment.
- Persuade customers to pay amounts due on credit accounts, damage claims, or nonpayable checks, or to return merchandise.
What to study
The fields of study the Department of Education links to this occupation, most widely taught first.
- Finance and Financial Management ServicesSee 765 colleges that teach it
Who it suits
O*NET scores every occupation on six interest dimensions. This one leans hardest on these three.
Organised and precise
Leading and persuading
Helping and teaching
Careers like this one
Where this comes from: the description and the task list are O*NET, which the Department of Labor maintains. Pay, workforce size, outlook and the education normally needed are the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections programme, 2025 wages and 2025 to 2035 projections. Half of them earn more than $47,030 a year, which means half earn less, and what you would earn depends on where you work and how long you have been doing it. The fields of study come from the National Center for Education Statistics crosswalk.