Pioneer and Premiere Credit Dominate ED Collection Contract in August

Pioneer Credit Recovery and Premiere Credit of North America in August enjoyed comfortable victories in their respective categories in the Department of Education’s monthly student loan debt collection performance competition.

Pioneer was the leading collection agency on ED’s unrestricted contract, reserved for larger companies. Pioneer dominated the competition by bringing in $17.4 million in the month and posting a near-perfect performance score. A tightly-clustered group including Van Ru Credit Corp., NCO Group and CBE Group vied for a distant second for points accumulated in the third quarter through August.

ED’s performance scores are based on a weighted average of performance metrics, including total dollars collected, total accounts serviced and administrative resolutions. The scores are released each month, but compiled for internal scoring on a quarterly basis. Final quarterly rankings determine bonuses and account placement levels.

Through August, Pioneer has brought in $44.75 million in the second quarter, with Van Ru in second with collections of $36 million.

On the small business set-aside contract, Premiere Credit also posted a near perfect performance score in August. Overall small business leader Continental Service Group (ConServe) was in second place with the remaining three small business collection agencies far behind.

Premiere led the way in dollars collected in August with $6.8 million, followed closely by Account Control Technology with $6.6 million and ConServe with $6.4 million.

The 17 collection agencies on ED’s current contract have brought in $6.33 billion for the government in the 54 months of the contract. Pioneer leads all companies with $825 million collected while ConServe leads the small business contractors with $216.5 million collected.