Re: [IUG] Article from New York Times on Overdue Fines and Credit Ratings

["Carol Gyger" <cgyger at fcgov dot com>]

We don't use courtesy notices of the III variety, but we do send out the first overdue notice after 1 day overdue and we don't charge fines the first day.  We've been doing this long before courtesy notices were possible in III.  
 
Our customers appreciate the early notices and respond to them, but we haven't seen a drop in fines collected or number of accounts turned over to our collection agency.  Some people just do not respond to the first 3 overdue notices even though we clearly state their account may be turned over to a collection agency.
 
Our collection agency does not "credit report" a customer unless they don't respond to the notices from the collection agency for 4 months.  We really do give people many chances to respond.  Bottom line is it comes down to the customer's choice.
 
Carol
 
Carol Gyger
Systems Administrator
Fort Collins Regional Library District
201 Peterson St.
Fort Collins CO  80524
(970)221-6716
cgyger at fcgov dot com 
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>>> "Seeman, Corey" <cseeman at bus dot umich dot edu> 12/27/2007 7:05 AM >>>
This is an interesting article that ran in the New York Time yesterday morning:

http://tinyurl.com/229mk6 <http://tinyurl.com/229mk6> 

New York Region
Late Library Books Can Take Toll on Credit Scores
By ANNE BARNARD and JO CRAVEN McGINTY
Published: December 26, 2007
The Queens Library system often flexes its muscles in collecting overdue books and late fees.

Much of the article revolves around Unique Management - a collection agency that partners with many Innovative customers.  Just some nice food for thought.  

The funny thing is that now that more and more libraries offer courtesy notices, I wonder if the amounts collected will go down.  That would be interesting for libraries that have these notices implemented to see if it has had an impact on dues collected.

Best for the holidays.

Corey





Corey Seeman
Director
Kresge Business Administration Library
Ross School of Business
The University of Michigan
cseeman at umich dot edu 
(734) 764-9969
(734) 717-9734 (cell)
(734) 764-3839 (fax)

Kresge Library Home Page: http://www.bus.umich.edu/kresgelibrary/ <http://www.bus.umich.edu/kresgelibrary/> 
My home page: http://www ( http://www/ )-personal.umich.edu/~cseeman/index.html <http://www ( http://www/ )-personal.umich.edu/~cseeman/index.html> 




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