MARS · Cost-to-Collect
Work more accounts without growing collection costs at the same rate.
As a loan book grows, the delinquent accounts grow with it. Adding collectors to keep up means cost-to-collect climbs alongside the portfolio — you pay more to recover roughly the same share.
MARS breaks that link. It executes the routine recovery work automatically and puts your collectors' time where it actually changes the outcome, so you can work more accounts without staffing up in step with the book.
Definition
What is cost-to-collect?
Cost-to-collect falls when each collector's time goes to accounts where it changes the outcome and routine contact is automated. MARS is designed to lower cost-to-collect by prioritising effort and executing high-volume recovery work automatically.
Cost-to-collect is the total operational cost of recovering delinquent debt — collectors, calls, messages, admin and tooling — measured against what actually comes back. It is not just headcount; it is how much of that effort lands on accounts that respond.
The problem
Why cost-to-collect rises with the book.
The usual answer to a bigger delinquent book is more collectors. Cost then scales with volume, because every account gets roughly the same manual attention regardless of whether it needed a person.
Most of the queue does not need judgment. A reminder, a confirmation, a follow-up on a promised date — this is high-volume, repetitive work that still consumes a collector's day when it is done by hand.
Meanwhile the accounts that genuinely need a skilled conversation wait in the same line as the ones that would have self-cured. Effort is spread evenly instead of spent where it moves recovery, so adding people is the only lever left.
How it works
How MARS lowers cost-to-collect.
MARS changes what a collector spends time on. It runs the routine work itself and reserves human effort for the accounts where it counts.
Automate routine contact
Reminders, confirmations and standard follow-ups run automatically across channels, so the high-volume work no longer ties up a collector.
Prioritise by impact
Ranks the book by where a collector's time actually changes the outcome, so skilled effort lands on accounts that respond to it.
Cut manual admin
Logs interactions, updates account state and captures promises without a person keying it in, removing the overhead around every contact.
Outcome
Keep recovery up while cost comes down.
Lowering cost-to-collect only matters if recovery holds. MARS is built to do both at once: automation absorbs the routine volume, and the accounts most likely to move still get worked — often more consistently than a stretched team could manage by hand.
- More accounts worked per collector
- Consistent follow-up that does not slip when volume spikes
- Human time concentrated on the cases that repay it
Cost comes down because effort is redirected, not because accounts are dropped.
Compare
Reduce cost-to-collect vs adding collectors or outsourcing.
Adding collectors scales recovery and cost together — the ratio barely improves. Outsourcing moves the cost off your payroll but hands the borrower relationship and the recovery strategy to someone else, usually for a share of what comes back. MARS takes a different route: it lowers the cost of each account worked by automating the routine volume in-house, while your team keeps ownership of the hard cases. See AI debt collection software for how MARS runs the wider recovery workflow, and early-bucket collections for intervening before accounts get expensive to recover.
Integrations
Fits your LMS and collections stack.
MARS connects to the systems you already run, so it lowers cost-to-collect on your existing book without a rip-and-replace. Your loan management system stays the source of truth.
- Loan management and core lending systems
- CRM and borrower records
- Voice, messaging and payment channels
Ready when you are
Recover more without recruiting more.
Bring your delinquent book and your loan management system. We will show you where MARS automates the routine volume and where it concentrates your collectors, so cost-to-collect stops rising in step with the portfolio.