Apollo Offers Debtor Some Tough Choices

(This is the second in a series on collection software providers of online debt-payment systems. Today’s story continues coverage of Apollo Enterprise Solutions.)

Different debtors have different abilities to repay debt. One may have a steady income, credit availability and few other payments while his neighbor may have almost no credit availability and several other outstanding debts. Even if both owe the same amount, debtor number one is likely to be able to handle larger monthly payments, so should receive different repayment offers than debtor number two, said G. Christopher Emory, president and CEO of Apollo Enterprise Solutions, Irvine, Calif.

The different offers are based on a combination of the information the Apollo solution pulls from the credit bureau reports, third party data sources, account data and payment history. That information is mixed with Apollo’s internally developed algorithms that help determine ability to pay and with the client company’s (credit card, collection agency, etc.) own internal rules.

Someone with a steady job and steady income owing $5,000 might be offered the option to pay the debt off immediately, an option to pay $1,000 a month for five months; another option for $500 a month for 10 months and an “I need to work out other arrangements” option. Someone with seasonal employment may not be offered the $500 a month option because that debtor is not as good a long-term risk.

This is markedly different than what Emory describes as the “Priceline approach” of some other online debt collection solutions, which ask the debtor to make an offer that the collecting firm (agency or direct biller) can accept or reject.

Apollo says its card-issuing clients represent more than 23 percent of general-purpose cards and more than 60 percent of retail cards as measured by outstanding volumes.

In addition, Apollo’s system is used by several of the five largest collection agencies, said Jeff Dickey, executive vice president. “We anticipate substantial growth in our business in 2008. We currently employ approximately 35 employees and expect that number to grow to over 50 in the next six months,” said Dickey.

Emory expects to add to Apollo’s success with new capabilities for mobile devices via a strategic alliance with Japan-based NTT DoCoMo. The service, dubbed IDS Mobile, uses a Web interface to present decisioned offers through SMS messages. Offers may be viewed, accepted, and payments made, directly from the mobile device.

Because these devices have smaller screens, the offers are presented in a shorter form, forcing the debtor to do more scrolling to finish the transaction. But there are numerous recent studies from financial service consultants like TowerGroup, Celent and Aite that highlight consumer approval of the ability to conduct financial transactions via mobile devices.