Office and administrative support
Bill and account collectors
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 pay
$47,030
Growth to 2035
−10%
declining
Openings a year
11,200
Time to qualify*
6 months
* From a bachelor's degree in an unrelated field.
Pay
Bill and account collectors
Getting in
- Typical entry education
- High school diploma or equivalent
- On-the-job training
- Moderate-term on-the-job training
- Prior experience
- None
What the work is like
Dealing with the public
Unpleasant or angry people
Time pressure
Cost of a mistake
Freedom to make decisions
Repeating the same tasks
Time sitting
Time standing
Bill and account collectors: 5% usually work over 40 hours a week
Core tasks
- Record information about financial status of customers and status of collection efforts.
- Locate and notify customers of delinquent accounts by mail, telephone, or personal visits to solicit payment.
- Locate and monitor overdue accounts, using computers and a variety of automated systems.
- Arrange for debt repayment or establish repayment schedules, based on customers' financial situations.
- Advise customers of necessary actions and strategies for debt repayment.
- Answer customer questions regarding problems with their accounts.
- Persuade customers to pay amounts due on credit accounts, damage claims, or nonpayable checks, or to return merchandise.
- 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.
Also called: Account Representative · Accounts Receivable Specialist (AR Specialist) · Collection Agent · Collection Specialist · Collector · Debt Collector · Patient Access Specialist · Patient Account Representative
Outlook and AI
Bill and account collectors held 160,200 jobs in 2025. BLS projects 143,400 by 2035 (−10%, declining; all jobs: +3.5%).
Productivity change - share decreases as automated collections software allows the same amount of collections work to be done with fewer human collectors.
Compare with
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