As of November 2026, Accounts Receivable Management (ARM) is TSI's debt collection agency service for creditors. It provides collection agency and debt recovery services for past-due consumer and commercial accounts, from reminders in your name through third-party collection and legal recovery. TSI reaches customers by text, email and a self-service pay page before calls and letters, and has more than $20 billion in receivables under management in Accounts Receivable Management.
Results vary by portfolio, including account age, balance and type, and by client program.
Got a letter or call from TSI about your own account? Go to the Consumer Support Hub or make a payment.
What the wrong agency costs you
The fee is the number everyone negotiates. The number that matters is what you keep after the fee.
An agency a few points cheaper that collects a little less can cost you more than the one you passed on, and the gap never shows up on an invoice. The agency net-back calculator shows the math with your own numbers.
The other cost shows up later: a complaint, a missed opt-out, or a regulator asking how you oversee the people contacting your customers. You need an agency that answers those questions with records, account by account.
How to choose a debt collection agency
Agencies look alike on a bid sheet. Five checks tell them apart:
- Check the licenses yourself. Look the agency up on NMLS Consumer Access and confirm it's licensed in the states where your customers live. TSI's NMLS ID is 950422.
- Compare what you keep after fees. Net-back is dollars collected minus fees and costs, per dollar placed, on matched accounts.
- Ask for contact records, account by account: how the agency counts calls toward Regulation F's 7-in-7 limit, honors opt-outs by channel and holds disputed accounts.
- Ask which channels it uses. Text, email and a self-service pay page reach people who don't pick up, and calls and letters cover the rest.
- Test before you switch. Split like accounts with your current agency and compare results month by month.
ARM services, in recovery-chain order
Accounts move down the chain only when the earlier, cheaper step hasn't worked. The contact history, disputes and consent records move with each account, so nobody starts over.
- Demand communicationsTexts, RCS messages and email with a pay link first, then letters, before an account goes to calling or collectionYours or TSI's
- First-party collectionsPast-due accounts worked under your brand and scripts before charge-off, by text, email, pay page and callsYours
- Third-party collectionsCharged-off accounts worked with day-one scrubs, scored contact order, and plans and settlements inside limits you setTSI's
- Secondary placementsSecondary and tertiary agency placements, recall and re-placement, and champion-challenger tests against your other agenciesTSI's
- Legal recoverySuits only on accounts you approve, where the balance and documents support one, through a managed attorney networkA law firm in TSI's network
Five pages cover work that runs across every stage or fits a particular kind of business:
- Payments and self-service explains the pay page, text-to-pay, IVR, wallets, plans and settlements, and trust accounting.
- Deceased and bankruptcy accounts covers estate recovery, probate claims, bankruptcy scrubs, proofs of claim and SCRA checks.
- B2B collections covers past-due invoices owed by other businesses.
- Accounts receivable outsourcing explains what to outsource, how each stage is priced and when outsourcing beats hiring.
- Small business collections covers fixed-fee reminders in your name and contingency collection for practices, salons and other small businesses.
Running several agencies already? TSI vs software-only recovery platforms compares a managed program with buying software, and DebtNext is the software side.
How the work runs
Scrub and score on arrival
Placed accounts are checked for bankruptcy, death and active military duty before first contact. Scoring on credit, contact and payment data sets who gets contacted first and through which channel. People make the decisions on the hard conversations.
Reach customers where they answer
Texts and emails with a pay link go first where the customer has consented, then calls from trained collectors and letters. Contact follows Regulation F's call limits (12 CFR 1006.14), its email and text opt-out rules (12 CFR 1006.6), the TCPA, state time-of-day rules and your own limits.
Let customers pay without a call
A self-service pay page, open around the clock, takes payment in full, plans and settlements you've pre-approved. Customers can also pay through an automated phone line, and payments land in trust accounts reconciled daily.
Score the calls from outside operations
New collectors complete a two-week training program, then work alongside trainers before taking accounts alone. Quality assurance runs separately from operations, Ripple, TSI's real-time compliance and quality monitoring tool, scores every call, and the results feed one-on-one coaching.
Show you everything
Account activity, notes and results sit in a client portal. Files move by secure file transfer or API. Every complaint goes to TSI's Consumer Affairs team, which finds what caused it and reports the fix.
Credit bureau reporting happens only when you direct it. Where the work sits, onshore or offshore, is written into your contract.
Contact rules changing in the next 90 days
The FCC's new TCPA consent-revocation rules take effect Nov 25, 2026. Callers may treat an opt-out from one category of informational calls or texts as covering that category only, and may name an exclusive way to revoke consent. In New York City, the SHIELD rule's contact and notice limits start Jan 1, 2027.
- Final, effective soonLast checked Nov 2, 2026
TCPA consent revocation (FCC 26-67)
- Date
- Published Oct 26, 2026 (91 FR 67214); effective Nov 25, 2026
- What applies today
- The 2024 revocation rules: consent can be revoked by any reasonable means, honored within 10 business days
- Next trigger
- Nov 25, 2026; comments on the FCC's further proposals
Source: Federal Register, 91 FR 67214
- Final, not yet in effectLast checked Nov 2, 2026
NYC SHIELD rule
- Date
- Published Feb 26, 2026; effective-date amendment adopted Oct 2026
- What applies today
- NYC's current debt collection rules
- Next trigger
- Jan 1, 2027
Source: DCWP notice of adoption
Industries we serve
- Banks and lenders
- Credit unions
- Auto finance and consumer lending
- Utilities
- Telecom, cable and broadband
- State and local government
- Federal agencies and guaranty agencies
- Tolling and transportation
- Property management
Hospitals and health systems work with TSI through Healthcare Revenue Cycle Management (RCM).
General information, current as of November 2026. It isn't legal advice. Rules change and differ by state, so check the sources linked here and talk to your own counsel before you act on it.
The company behind the work
Questions buyers ask
What does a debt collection agency do?
A debt collection agency recovers past-due money owed to a business. The creditor places accounts with the agency, which contacts customers within federal and state rules, takes payments and reports results back. Most agencies are paid on contingency, a share of what they collect. TSI also works accounts earlier, in the creditor's own name, before they reach third-party collection.
What's the difference between a collection agency and a debt buyer?
A collection agency works your accounts for a fee, and you keep ownership of the debt. A debt buyer purchases the accounts and collects for itself. TSI is a collection agency. Sell or keep placing? shows when a sale beats another placement.
How much does a debt collection agency charge?
Most charge a contingency fee, a share of what they recover, and the rate moves with account age, balance, volume and legal work. What collection agencies charge lists published ranges and their sources. Compare agencies on what you keep after fees, not on the rate alone.
When should a business send accounts to a collection agency?
When your own reminders stop producing payments and the account still has a realistic chance of paying. Older accounts get harder to collect, so waiting usually costs you. TSI can take accounts while they're still in your name, so the handoff doesn't have to wait for charge-off.
What is accounts receivable management (ARM)?
Accounts receivable management (ARM) is outsourced work on past-due accounts a creditor still owns, from early reminders in the creditor's name through third-party collection and legal recovery.
Is there an ARM collections platform with integrated payment processing and analytics?
TSI runs the platform and the work together. Customers pay by text link, email link, the self-service pay page or an automated phone line, payments go to trust accounts reconciled daily, and you see placements, contacts, payments and results by stage in a client portal. If you need software to manage several agencies of your own, that's DebtNext.
What's the difference between first-party and third-party collections?
First-party work happens in your name, usually before charge-off. Third-party collection happens in TSI's name after it, and the account comes with the history from the earlier stage.
How do I compare collection agencies on what I keep after fees?
Place matched accounts with each agency, then compare cash collected minus fees per dollar placed, by stage and by month. The agency net-back calculator does the math, and the Diagnostic runs it on your own placement history.
Can a new collection agency work alongside our current agencies?
Yes. You can split like accounts between TSI and your current agencies and compare results month by month, or run a secondary placement as a champion-challenger test.
Is TSI licensed where our customers live?
TSI is licensed or registered in every state that requires it and authorized to collect in all 50 states, DC and Puerto Rico. Its NMLS ID is 950422, and you can check its state licenses yourself on NMLS Consumer Access.
How is ARM priced?
On contingency, a fixed fee per account or both, set for each portfolio once TSI has seen its age and balances.
Measure before you move a single account
Start with one stage or segment. The Recovery Performance Diagnostic measures what you net on it today, flags channel and complaint risk, and sets up a carve-out you can run as a measured pilot.
Got a letter or call from TSI about your own account? Go to the Consumer Support Hub or make a payment.
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Paying a bill or have a question about your account? Go to the Consumer Support Hub.