How do larger creditors find and choose a new collection agency?

Do larger creditors search for a new agency?

Almost never, at least not in a search box. We pulled US search volumes for 72 phrases a hospital, city, utility, university or lender might use when it wants to change agency or check one. The replacement and evaluation phrases drew 0 to 10 searches a month on Google, Bing and AI assistants alike:

• switching, changing or replacing a collection agency;
• "collection agency RFP" and "RFP collection services";
• collection agency scorecards, audits, performance and vendor management;
• recovery rate, liquidation rate and KPIs for collection agencies;
• champion and challenger agencies, and secondary agencies.

Method: Google figures are Google Ads volumes, the average of August and September 2026, the latest Google had published. Bing figures are the average of September and October 2026. AI figures are DataForSEO’s estimate of monthly searches in AI assistants such as ChatGPT, from its AI Optimization API. All are US only, pulled on 6 November 2026.

A larger creditor that wants to replace an agency does not look for one the way a small business does. It runs a tender or moves accounts between agencies it already knows, and then chooses on results.

What decides who wins once a creditor looks?

The results case. Price carries a minority of the points in public tenders, and some buyers fix it outright: the University of Arizona set its fee at 23% for a first referral and 28.5% for later ones, so bidders competed on everything else. What creditors score in a collection services RFP has the weights from nine tenders.

Dollars collected per account placed is reach times what each right-party contact turns into. Reach depends on data and dialers that are open to every agency. In our view the bigger difference between agencies working the same kind of accounts is what each contact brings in, and that depends on which collector takes which consumer (why collectors convert differently).

In a live test at a North American collection agency, a telecom book of 170,000 accounts was split 50/50 at random before the first call. The half matched by BestPair collected $98.76 per account reached against $79.17 on the usual process, 24.7% more. One book in one month, not a forecast for any other floor (the case study). Getting found matters only if the agency then has a result like that to show. How to stand out in a collection RFP works through the results answer.

Where do larger creditors look instead?

Public bodies tender. Cities, counties, utilities, public hospitals and state universities are required to. Most of the collection RFPs we found came from small cities and their utilities, then universities, public hospitals and state health plans.

Private creditors move share between agencies they know. Banks, credit unions and private hospital groups rarely publish an RFP, and we found no public credit union collection RFP at all. In our view they mostly hear about agencies from peers, trade associations and the agencies already on their books, and they test newcomers on part of a book. Winning more placements from the clients you have and winning a split placement cover that route.

Which category phrases do larger creditors search?

When larger creditors do search, they search for the category, not for an agency. Average monthly US searches:

Healthcare is the one creditor type that searches in volume. And AI assistants already take a real share of the category searches: close to Google for "accounts receivable management", and above it for "collections BPO" and "bank collection agency". The AI figures are estimates and small, but buyers increasingly read an AI answer before a website.

What do creditors check once you are on the list?

The gates, before the results. Public RFPs set them out, and private creditors check the same things in a vendor review (what creditors score in a collection services RFP):

• Compliance and security. Westchester Medical Center requires SOC 2 Type II or HITRUST certification, onshore work and recording of every patient call.
• Reporting and access. The City of Cotati asks for monthly reports on recovery percentage, collection time, payment plans and complaints, and expects a live demonstration of the agency’s systems.
• History. Alabama’s PEEHIP asks bidders to list clients who ended their relationship in the past 3 years, with the reasons.
• A trial. Creditors that split books test a new agency on part of one before moving more (winning a split placement).

How does an agency get on the shortlist?

In our view, three things put an agency in front of a larger creditor before the proposal:

1. Be on the tender lists. Register on the procurement portals of the cities, counties, utilities and universities in your states, and watch the bid aggregators.
2. Be in the answers buyers read. One clear page per creditor type you serve, with a result stated in a sentence an AI assistant can quote. Getting recommended by ChatGPT and other AI tools covers what those answers cite.
3. Be the agency existing clients talk about. A creditor that sees one agency out-collect another on the same accounts tells its peers. Why creditors move accounts covers the other side of that.

Sources

• BestPair search research, 6 November 2026: US Google Ads volumes (average of August and September 2026), Bing volumes (average of September and October 2026) and AI-assistant estimates from the DataForSEO AI Optimization API, for 72 phrases.
• Westchester Medical Center, Primary Bad Debt Collection Services RFP (2025): certification, onshore work and call recording.
• City of Cotati, RFP Utility Applicant Screening and Collection Services (2026): monthly reporting and a live demonstration.
• PEEHIP debt collection services listing (2026): clients lost in the past 3 years.
• University of Arizona, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University, Debt Collection RFP (2026): the fixed fees.