Is your credit union experiencing an increase in delinquency rate? It might have something to do with how you’re onboarding/accepting members. Follow these 3 steps to help minimize your delinquency rate.
Step 1: Research your borrowers beforehand.
While potential borrowers typically have to fill out some extensive paperwork, it’s important to truly know the borrower that you’re speaking to. One of the biggest reasons for high delinquency rates is a lack of knowledge from the credit union on the people they are accepting as borrowers. The more you understand the potential borrower, the better the picture you can paint for whether or not they’re a good move for your business.
Things to know before talking to a borrower:
- Do they have a history of late payments?
- Are they paying other bills?
- Do they have escalating debt?
- Are they using a higher percentage of their credit lines?
Step 2: Enhance your communication techniques.
What methods are you currently using to remind your members of upcoming payments? What about when they have a past due payment? Believe it or not, most of the time members truly do want to make these payments, they either:
- Were unaware that it was time to make a payment
- Forgot
- Would prefer a different avenue for paying (i.e; automatic electronic payments)
In this industry, communication is key, and if you aren’t communicating when payments are due to consumers, it’s easy for your bills to get lost in a sea of other bills.
Step 3: Utilize technology to help you stay up-to-date.
When you have hundreds of members and not enough employee bandwidth, staying on top of your daily responsibilities, let alone reminding members of upcoming payments can feel impossible. Fortunately, there is one credit union technology changing the game: DirectDrop Voicemail. By leveraging the powerful capabilities of DirectDrop Voicemail, credit unions are able to better manage member debt in order to temper potentially growing delinquency rates while still delivering members with the familiar confidence they expect.
Interested in seeing how that’s possible? Find out here.
