Tracing Debtors Explained.
Tracing Debtors - Introduction
If someone owes you money, it’s only natural to look for a way to get it back. However, that isn’t always as simple as it sounds. While finding a business that owes you money may often be relatively easy, it can be very challenging to find an individual who is in debt to you, and this is a surprisingly common problem.
People are owed money for all kinds of reasons. Perhaps they didn’t receive payment for a business transaction, perhaps they are owed money from a tenant that absconded from the property, or perhaps the debt is of a personal nature.
Unfortunately, it can be all too easy to lose contact with debtors, especially when those debtors don’t want to be found, and that can make your problem even more complex. Tracing individuals can be complicated, and if you lack up-to-date details for them, it can be virtually impossible to know where to start.
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How Do I Trace A Debtor?
Tracing a debtor on your own isn’t impossible, but it can be very tricky. There are a few steps that you can take independently to try to catch up with the individual who owes you money.
First, the most sensible course of action is to seek out business associates or friends that you have in common with the individual to find out whether they know how to find the debtor. It’s important to be aware, however, that even if you know where the individual works if you are going to send them any legal correspondence about the debt that they owe to you personally, it must only be sent to their home address, not to that of their employer.
The next step is to look through the free or low-cost online directories that can prove helpful in tracing individuals. You should be aware, though, that the results that are supplied by those directories can be outdated and limited, therefore, you can’t always solely rely on this information.
Since neither of these options is especially reliable, finding a better alternative is key to success, and by far the best method to trace a debtor is to use a professional debtor tracing service.
What Is Debtor Tracing?
A debtor tracing service helps to locate people who owe you money so that your debt collection procedure can go ahead. A debt tracing professional or debtor Tracing Agent can use specialist API data feeds for people tracing, tracing software packages, and alternative open source software to find individuals even when you have no forwarding address for them from the last location that you were aware of.
In most circumstances a debtor tracing agent will locate a individual using the following framework
Use a credit agency such as Experian, Equifax or TransUnion to obtain a linked address from the last known address. This linked address will be matched to the individual being searched at the last known address for the subject. In addition this linked address will show a time stamp when the Credit agency confirms the subject was matched at the new address for instance because the subject applied for Credit at the new address or informed a utility provider of their details to setup a new account.
Once the linked address has been obtained the address will need to be confirmed via an alternative non Credit agency source such as a telephone name match at the address using the BT Osis data set. This will show the bill payers name at the address and whether the line is active, if this shows a match this would confirm the data provided from the credit agency.
In addition, the more alternative sources of data obtained that confirm the new address the more robust the information will be. For instance if several other data sources show the new address to be valid the integrity of the data will be higher and more reliable for further action to proceed.
This is a short overview of a typical tracing process for debtor tracing agents but to underscore this is only a short overview and the debt trace process is far more complicated than this to provide a reliable debtor tracing service.
How Does A Tracing Agent Find A Debtor?
Effective and efficient tracing is a mix of science and art. A tracing agent has access to a wide range of different databases including credit bureau information and industry access tracing data API Feeds. Therefore, even when a debtor is extremely evasive or if you have no information about their current whereabouts, it’s still possible for a talented tracing agent, who has the right level and breadth of data access, to find an individual that hopes to fly under the radar.
A tracing agent will use both legal and ethical methods to search for a debtor, find links and leads, follow trails, even with minimal details to work from, locate phone numbers and current addresses, and more. A lead may come from a telephone number, a name, or a previous known address. Essentially, tracing agents dissect the data that they have available to them from every source and carry out in-depth research so that they can finally establish the debtor’s current whereabouts.
How Do I Find Someone Who Owes Money?
If you have followed the steps we’ve suggested above to find a debtor independently and still had no success in your search for the individual in question, it’s time to contact a professional debt tracing company such as DebtTrace.
You’ll find that the skilled and experienced debt tracers have the necessary expertise and access to the widest range of databases and files to locate even hard-to-find individuals within a short space of time. However, the more information you are able to supply about the person, the faster the agents will be able to come up with results.
Whenever possible, it’s helpful to be able to provide as much as you can from the following details:
· A name – when tracing an individual, it’s important to have a full name (including any middle names if applicable). With no name to go on, it’s impossible to get started.
· A date of birth – a date of birth makes it quicker and easier to locate the correct person since the DOB acts as an identifier.
· An address – if you have the individual’s last known address, this helps the agent to determine whether the name that is linked with that address is the correct person. If you don’t have the last known address, any previous address is better than none.
Other information that is helpful for tracing include:
· Telephone numbers
· Details of employment and place of work
· Details about the debtor’s vehicle
· The names of any people they live with or that they are associated with
· Any variations in their name or previous names that they have been known by
· The individual’s age (or approximate age)
· Any online social network links
· Any clubs they attend
· Any addresses or names for other members of their family
Armed with as much of this information as possible, a debt tracing agent can get on the case and produce results as quickly as possible so that you can start the process of getting your money back.
How to Trace a Debtor
To start finding your debtor now, get in touch with DebtTrace today. We offer an automated tracing service that is manually overseen by experienced agents and that offers 24 hour service. If the subject cannot be traced within seven days, you’ll receive your fee refunded in full.
As DebtTrace has access to an industry-leading team of agents and has an impressive success rate of 98% for locating current addresses for debtors, you can be confident that your debt tracing will be in the safest possible hands.
So, contact us today and you could have your debts repaid more quickly than you imagined.
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