Teaching Financial Responsibility | How Debt Collectors Can Drive Positive Change | Ep. 216

Adam Parks (00:07)

Hello everybody, Adam Parks here with another episode of Receivables Podcast. Today I'm here with Courtney Renaud to talk about the CAC Scholarship Program and all the great things that they're doing to help educate our youth on financial literacy and financial topics. So Courtney, how you doing today? It's great to see you. another day in paradise.

Courtney Reynaud (00:28)

I'm doing great, how are you?

Adam Parks (00:31)

For anyone who has not been as lucky as me to get to know you when you were the president of ACA or even before that, could you tell everyone a little bit about yourself and how you got to the seat that you're in today?

Courtney Reynaud (00:42)

Absolutely. So I am third generation in the industry. Our family business started in 1935 and my mom and her business partner purchased it in the early 80s. so I, everyone remembers me at the office when, when I was younger, we would roll around on the carts downstairs and my cousin and I, were pretty close in age.

Anyway, so I swore I would never work in the family business. But I was in college and I needed a part-time job and it just made sense to work at The Credit Bureaus. So I started working in the skip tracing department and then I got really into learning about training and collections. so against my mom's wishes, we had a trainer that trained me to be a collector and I really enjoyed it.

I ended up, she ended up leaving. I became the trainer and eventually moved into the compliance officer role and was being groomed to take over for my mom when she retired in 2017. And so my husband and I bought the business in 2017. And so it's been great. Some years have been better than others. COVID was hard and all of that, but it's been a fantastic journey.

I actually learned how to speak Spanish at The Credit Bureau.

Adam Parks (01:59)

Wow, that's a really cool story. But for anyone who's not familiar

with your agency, could you tell us a little bit about what you specialize in and what it is that you do there?

Courtney Reynaud (02:08)

Yeah, so we do mostly third party collections. Probably 95 % is medical debt collections, but we also do commercial collections, rental, and then we have a full staff litigation team. So occasionally when we do have to pursue litigation, we have that available as well for our clients.

Adam Parks (02:33)

A full service type of firm. like hearing that. And you've also been extremely active across the industry, both with ACA and CAC. And I saw your post the other day where you were talking about the scholarship program for CAC and for those students. Could you tell us a little bit about what that program is and what it is that you're trying to?

Courtney Reynaud (02:54)

So we've been doing this for several years and it is a scholarship for high school students and specifically we award three scholarships each year. And so in order for them to apply, they just have to be in high school, typically juniors or seniors, and any high school, could be online, charter schools, they just have to be in a high school in California.

And they have to write an essay on the importance of establishing and maintaining good credit during and after college. And we end up with hundreds of essays every year. And so we have a valiant team of volunteer readers. And let me tell you, it is a lot of work, but it is so, it is so worth it.

Adam Parks (03:37)

So it sounds like there's a couple of things that the industry can do to help support this incredible effort because I think most of us that are in the industry and have gone to college know exactly what happens your first day on campus, right? You get a $20,000 credit card limit and you're irresponsible with it. And I think that's how a lot of people start off their financial career or their financial life. And that's, it's kind of sad. So I love what you guys are doing in terms of helping.

these students to better understand and to get them to go out and research and to participate and to be part of that. But what can the industry do to help you on this journey?

Courtney Reynaud (04:14)

Yeah, I would say obviously donations. We need money to fund the scholarships. We've done over $120,000 worth of scholarships over the years. So it is a big financial burden. We do give out scholarships, first place is 2,500, second is 2,000, and third place is 1,500. So of course, we're always looking for donations to the cause, and that can be made.

really by anybody. does not require that a member give it. It is tax deductible. It is a scholarship fund. So in case you were trying to find your last minute tax write-offs before you file for next year. But it's a great program. And these kids come and they read the top three finalists do read.

to the group their essays and it is so impactful. If you have an opportunity to join us at CAC, which is next week, they will be there and they will be reading their essays. And that is a great way to really see the impact of this program.

Adam Parks (05:20)

I absolutely love it. made a donation myself and I think it's something that the entire industry should really take a minute to do because even for you know, for the for a bar tab, you can make a difference in a young person's life and help them prepare for a positive financial future. Courtney, what has been driving you to participate in this for so long? It sounds like you've been I know that you're active with CAC in general, but you're a reader, you're a donor, you know, what drives you personally to participate in this?

Courtney Reynaud (05:48)

So I remember being in college and like you said, having that credit card presented to me with a limit of $20,000 when I didn't have a job. And there was absolutely no way that I could have ever paid that back. And I realized that if I knew because of my knowledge of the industry and being third generation that having a $20,000 credit limit was not a good decision, not a decision I should make. And so I turned down that offer. But I think about all my colleagues.

Courtney Reynaud (06:17)

who didn't, right? And they're probably still paying off that $20,000 credit card limit that they had. So if we can catch people before they make those mistakes, if we can catch those students so that they were aware prior to going into college, then we keep them out of the debt collection cycle. I know that I make money from debt collection, so it sounds counterintuitive, but I would prefer to not have people that have made

poor financial decisions during college and after college coming to collection. If they had this education, maybe they wouldn't be here.

Adam Parks (06:51)

I agree with that wholeheartedly. I guess we make our money from the debt collection business, but getting people out of debt, I think is our primary focus. It's to help these consumers resolve these outstanding accounts. And if we can have less consumers with outstanding accounts, that's a positive thing, not just for the American economy, for our state economies, but just for life in general. And I think it's our responsibility as those of us with the knowledge to make sure that we're sharing it.

And we're providing opportunities for others to continue to learn it too, because that is our responsibility to give back. Courtney and I can't thank you enough for coming on and actually sharing your thoughts on this, because I know you've been so passionate about it that you made me passionate about it. And immediately I wanted to reach out and just see if we could do a quick piece of content to try and get more people across the debt collection industry to participate in this program and to help.

these children into the future.

Courtney Reynaud (07:46)

Yeah, absolutely.

Adam Parks (07:49)

For those of you that are watching, you have additional questions you'd like to ask Courtney or myself, you can leave those in the comments on LinkedIn and YouTube and we'll be responding to those. Or if you have additional topics you'd like to see us discuss, I'm hoping I can get Courtney back at least one more time to help me create great content for a great industry. But until next time, Courtney, thank you so much for coming on and sharing with me today. I really do appreciate your insights.

And thank you everybody for watching. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments and we'll see you all again soon. Bye.

That was great.