The term first party collections refers to any collections that are performed by the company to whom the debt is owed. You may not have realized it, but any time you call a client and ask them to pay up on a bill or send a reminder notice, you're doing first party collections. Some large companies go as far as to open their own collection agency as a subsidiary to handle this.

"First party" literally means that you were the first party in the original exchange of goods or services for money, i.e. the lender. The person who accepted the goods or services and promised to pay, i.e. the debtor, is the "second party." If an outside collection agency becomes involved, they were not part of the original transaction, which is why they're called "third party."

First party collections activity has some unique advantages. For one thing, there is no lag in time between an account becoming delinquent and the beginning of the collections process. Also, you have knowledge of your customers' needs and practices, making it easy to maintain a positive relationship even after debt is incurred, which helps down the road if you want to keep the customer as a client.

Often the debtor will be more inclined to try to please their original creditor, especially if you have a product or service that he or she needs in order to maintain their business. Sometimes a gentle reminder that you won't ship any more items until their past due amount is cleared up is enough to get recalcitrant debtors to pay.

In addition, first party collections are not governed by the Fair Debt Collection act, believe it or not. This is because under the law the first party or its subsidiary is considered the lender rather than a collector and it means you can do some things that a third party debt collector can't by law. There are still state and federal laws that apply, though, so make sure you are familiar with all applicable regulations if you go this route.

The rule of thumb for first party collections no matter what the industry is to keep trying to collect for 2-3 months. When you reach that milestone and haven't yet collected, it's typically a good idea to engage an outside agency or sell the debt, which means someone pays you up front for the right to collect on the debts.

The most successful first party collections are done by dedicated collections professionals. Salespeople, accounting staff and business owners just aren't as capable at collections because their attentions are scattered and collections is one of the least pleasant tasks they have to do.

If you hire an individual or create a department to handle first party collections, however, they can be just as successful as third party collections. If they are knowledgeable in modern collection techniques like private investigation to track down new addresses and phone numbers, offering incentives to get the debtor to call in or working out settlements, first party efforts can be remarkably efficient. When trying to make the decision of which type of collections instruments to use, keep in mind whether you're spreading your resources too thin or if you have the team in place to do first party collections.