Collections calls need oldest debt first and live numbers
Before agents log in, you are looking at today’s call list and seeing more past-due customers than your floor can ring. It is sorted by days past due, so the accounts near the front are clear, and each row carries the mobile number from that customer’s latest application. The queue looks orderly, but its order decides who gets a call today and who waits. A vendor has offered a propensity-to-pay score that would re-sort the same list. You are still looking at the rows, with the agents not yet online. What would that new order mean for the calls your team makes?
Live numbers reduced past due balances
The number dialled can change arrears even when the call order stays the same. We built and ran a portfolio of 3,000 borrowers with consumer instalment loans twice, reading results from January to September 2026. The floor made 80 calls each business day, or 15,600 calls per run. Both runs used the same borrowers and the same luck. Both runs called the oldest debt first and made the same number of calls. One used the mobile number on the latest loan application. The other used the borrower’s live number, which was known inside the trial.
Balances over 30 and over 90 days were about half as large when calls went to the live number. This benchmark shows the value of live numbers, and a lender needs a way to identify them before deploying a number-selection rule. But a stale application number can spend an agent’s call on a disconnected line or the wrong person. The number matters.
Oldest debt first left lower arrears and provision
Reordering calls by a propensity-to-pay score won more promises than the old way, but it produced less cash, the largest balance over 90 days and the highest provision. The old way used the latest loan’s mobile and called oldest debt first. The three alternative orders used the warehouse’s number-selection rule. Money is in millions. Provision is measured at the end of September 2026.
| Order | Promises | Cash, m | Over 30, m | Over 90, m | Provision, m |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Old way | 3,502 | 14,525 | 328 | 102 | 211 |
| Most likely to pay | 3,995 | 14,277 | 569 | 384 | 570 |
| Largest overdue | 3,963 | 14,523 | 277 | 113 | 253 |
| Oldest debt first | 4,089 | 14,598 | 197 | 76 | 153 |
The scorecard ranked customers by whether they paid within 30 days of falling behind. That sounds reasonable when the floor is judged by promises. But payments made late without a call fell in the scorecard run, while long arrears grew. The scorecard directed calls toward customers likely to pay, while more difficult accounts continued to age. Assess the book by payments, arrears and provision, not promises alone.
Oldest debt first with the warehouse’s number-selection rule left lower balances over 30 and over 90 days than the other tested orders. Keep the call order simple.
A second same day call reduced coverage
Calling an emergency contact after the first number went unanswered reached fewer people and left a larger balance over 30 days in this trial.
A second attempt can look like more coverage, but it uses a call that could have gone to another customer. In the trial, fewer people received a call each day when the floor tried a second number, and the balance over 30 days rose. Use the day’s attempt on another account.
Dialer results can rank phone numbers
Use the dialer’s own results to choose which number to try next. The newest number the customer gave on their own account should rank first, with work and emergency numbers behind it and newer numbers ahead of older ones. Those other numbers may reach someone besides the customer.
In the warehouse, feeding call results back into the ranking reduced dead dials and increased the share of calls that reached the debtor. An answered number moves up. A number reported as disconnected or the wrong person since it was last given is dropped. A no-answer result moves a number down one place and keeps it available for another attempt, since silence leaves its status uncertain. Repeated no-answers move it down further, until its penalty reaches 60% below where it started.
Set tomorrow’s call list by debt and number
You are back at the morning list, with the order settled and the dialer’s results ready to use. Set up the calls this way:
- Order the list by oldest debt first.
- Limit each customer to one call per day, and use the next call on another account.
- Start with the customer’s own newest number. Drop a number only when the dialer reports it as disconnected or the wrong person since that number was last given.
- Feed each result into the next day’s number choice. Move answered numbers up, move numbers down one place after each unanswered call until their penalty reaches 60% below where it started, and drop numbers reported as disconnected or the wrong person.
Common questions about collections calls
Should collections call the oldest debt first?
Yes, among the call orders tested. Oldest debt first with the warehouse’s number-selection rule left lower balances over 30 and over 90 days than the other tested orders. Keep that order and focus on selecting a number likely to reach the customer.
Does a propensity-to-pay score improve a collections call list?
No, not as a way to improve the book in this trial. The scorecard won more promises, but it produced less total cash than the old way, and the balance over 90 days and provision were higher. Use oldest debt first rather than judging the list by promises alone.
Should an agent try another number when the first is not answered?
Not on the same day. In this trial, calling an emergency contact after no answer reached fewer people and left a higher balance over 30 days. Use the next call on another customer.
How do I know which phone number is live?
Use your dialer’s results to rank the numbers. Start with the customer’s own newest number, move answered numbers up, drop numbers reported as disconnected or the wrong person since they were last given, and move unanswered numbers down one place per unanswered call, stopping once the penalty reaches 60% below where it started.
Should early arrears be left to cure on their own?
The self-cure segment is early arrears that many teams leave to text messages or no contact, because many customers pay late on their own. Measure the window from past-due spells that cured with no call or other contact, as the day by which four in five had cured. This trial could not test a wait: the old way called almost everyone early, so only 4 of 344 spells cured untouched and no window could be measured. A team that calls everyone early has no untouched spells to measure and keeps calling its early arrears.
How often can a lender call a customer in arrears?
There is no single limit for every lender and jurisdiction. In the US, for debt collectors covered by Regulation F, the presumption of compliance applies at no more than seven calls to a person about a particular debt in seven consecutive days, and no call within seven consecutive days after a telephone conversation about that debt. In the UK, FCA Handbook CONC 7.9 says firms must not contact customers at unreasonable times and must pay due regard to reasonable requests, but sets no number of calls. A secondary report on Indonesia’s POJK 22/2023 says collections are limited to Monday through Saturday, excluding national holidays, from 08:00 to 20:00 local time, unless agreed with the customer beforehand. Check the rules that apply to your operation before setting call limits.
