Bill and Account Collectors
FinanceO*NET 43-3011.00United States
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 annual earnings
- $46,917
- Projected change
- −5.8%
- Typical education
- High school diploma or less
- Employment
- 160.48K jobs
50th percentile, United States
2025 to 2035
50.5% of the workforce
Growing to 151.17K by 2035
Explore this career by location
Compare nationwide estimates with state or county job-market data.
Showing United States
Loading available locations…
Build the skills
ASU learning related to this career
These courses and certificates are connected through catalog career relationships and Lightcast skill tags.
Loading related ASU learning
The work
What bill and account collectors do
Tasks reported for this occupation, ordered by how often they come up in the role.
- Record information about financial status of customers and status of collection efforts.
- Locate and monitor overdue accounts, using computers and a variety of automated systems.
- Locate and notify customers of delinquent accounts by mail, telephone, or personal visits to solicit payment.
- Advise customers of necessary actions and strategies for debt repayment.
- Arrange for debt repayment or establish repayment schedules, based on customers' financial situations.
- Answer customer questions regarding problems with their accounts.
- 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.
- Persuade customers to pay amounts due on credit accounts, damage claims, or nonpayable checks, or to return merchandise.
- Receive payments and post amounts paid to customer accounts.
- Trace delinquent customers to new addresses by inquiring at post offices, telephone companies, credit bureaus, or through the questioning of neighbors.
- Notify credit departments, order merchandise repossession or service disconnection, and turn over account records to attorneys when customers fail to respond to collection attempts.
- Sort and file correspondence and perform miscellaneous clerical duties, such as answering correspondence and writing reports.
- Perform various administrative functions for assigned accounts, such as recording address changes and purging the records of deceased customers.
Pay and outlook
What the job pays and where it is heading
Annual earnings range
Reported earnings by percentile, United States
- 10th percentile
- $34,136
- 25th percentile
- $38,837
- 50th percentile
- $46,917
- 75th percentile
- $56,731
- 90th percentile
- $65,961
The gold marker shows the median. Half earn more than $46,917 and half earn less.
Employment outlook
2025 to 2035 projection
−5.8%projected to decline
2025160,475 jobs
2035 projected151,166 jobs
9,309 fewer positions over the decade, before replacement hiring.
Preparation
Education levels
What people currently working in the career hold. These are not entry requirements.
- High school diploma or less
- 50.5%
- Some college
- 27.4%
- Bachelor's degree
- 21.1%
- Certificate
- 1.1%
Skills
Skills employers ask for
Technical skills appearing most often in job postings for this occupation.
How the work gets done
Core competencies
Broad capabilities associated with strong performance in this occupation.
- Active Listening
- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Persuasion
- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Negotiation
- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Mathematics
- Using mathematics to solve problems.
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
- Systems Analysis
- Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Learning Strategies
- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
In the market
Job titles and employers
Recent job postings in United StatesCommon job titles
- 01Collections Specialists4,230 postings
- 02Collections Representatives874 postings
- 03Collections Analysts549 postings
- 04Collectors532 postings
- 05Credit and Collections Specialists402 postings
- 06Credit and Collections Analysts330 postings
- 07Collections Coordinators213 postings
- 08Collections Agents191 postings
- 09Debt Collectors175 postings
- 10Collections Account Specialists132 postings
- 11Medical Collections Specialists125 postings
- 12Credit Coordinators121 postings
- 13Credit and Collections Coordinators103 postings
- 14Bilingual Collections Specialists97 postings
- 15Collections Managers84 postings
- 16Debt Collection Specialists81 postings
- 17Billing and Collections Specialists77 postings
- 18Collections and Recovery Specialists74 postings
- 19B2B Collections Specialists73 postings
- 20Legal Collections Specialists69 postings
Top employers
- 01Robert Half1,106 postings
- 02Aston Carter226 postings
- 03Baylor Scott & White Health218 postings
- 04Creative Financial Staffing156 postings
- 05Sedgwick118 postings
- 06TEKsystems104 postings
- 07Cardinal Health100 postings
- 08Accendra Health97 postings
- 09Addison Group84 postings
- 10Adecco78 postings
- 11US Foods75 postings
- 12AppleOne71 postings
- 13Randstad62 postings
- 14Cherry Bekaert59 postings
- 15CVS Health57 postings
- 16Insight Global55 postings
- 17Cochlear54 postings
- 18Vaco54 postings
- 19Ford52 postings
- 20Akumin50 postings
Keep looking