This is directly from Encore and details how the procedure for the collection letter processing works.

Freehold Cartage, Inc.

Delinquency Processing Overview

This document explains how the delinquency processing runs for Freehold Cartage, Inc. and what happens to customer accounts at each step. It also explains what information is included in the delinquency export file that is generated after processing completes.

Part 1: Credit Card Expiration Review

Turning Off Auto-Pay for Already-Expired Cards

Before anything else, the system checks for customers who have auto-pay enabled but whose credit card has already expired by more than 30 days. Any customer whose card expired before the end of last month will have their auto-pay automatically disabled. A note is recorded on the account explaining that auto-pay was turned off due to the expired card.

Warning Notices for Cards Expiring Soon

Separately, the system looks for customers whose auto-pay card is coming up on its expiration date. The criteria for this review are:

•       The customer currently has auto-pay turned on

•       The customer is in the residential billing group (Billing Group 15)

•       The customer's billing status is Active

The system gives each card a one-month grace period beyond its printed expiration date before treating it as expiring. Once inside that grace period, the system checks whether the card will expire within the next 45 days:

•       If the card expires within 45 days, the customer is assigned Delinquency Level 4 and included in the delinquency batch so that a warning notice can be generated.

•       If a customer was already at Level 4 from a prior run but has since updated their card and the new expiration is more than 45 days away, the system clears the Level 4 flag — no further notice is needed.

A note is recorded on every account that receives a credit card expiration notice.

Part 2: Past-Due Balance Review

Clearing Accounts with Small Balances

Before escalating any accounts, the system resets the delinquency level to zero for any customer in Billing Group 15 whose total balance across the 60-day, 90-day, and 120-day aging buckets is less than $5.00. This prevents notices from going out for negligible amounts.

Identifying Past-Due Accounts

The system then identifies all customers who have a qualifying past-due balance:

•       Customer is in Billing Group 15 or Billing Group 18

•       Customer's billing status is Active

•       The combined total of the 60-day, 90-day, and 120-day aging buckets is $5.00 or more

Every account meeting these criteria is included in the delinquency batch and has their delinquency level advanced by one.

Delinquency Level Progression

Delinquency levels represent how many consecutive processing cycles an account has carried a qualifying past-due balance. The levels advance as follows:

Once an account reaches Level 3, it does not advance further. The billing status is automatically changed to Shut Off, and a note is recorded on the account.

Shut-Off Action

When a customer reaches Level 3, the following happens automatically:

•       Billing status is changed to Shut Off

•       A permanent record of the status change is saved, including the date and the user who ran the process

•       A note is added to the account: "Delinquency level 3 reached. Billing status changed to SHUT OFF."

Part 3: The Delinquency Batch

At the end of processing, all accounts from both the credit card expiration review and the past-due balance review are combined into a single delinquency batch. The batch records the date it was run, who ran it, and a snapshot of each customer's account balance at that moment in time.

A note is also added to every customer account in the batch indicating that a past-due notice was generated.

Part 4: The Delinquency Export File

After a delinquency batch has been created, an export file can be generated by clicking the Export button on that batch. The export is a CSV file (comma-separated, compatible with Excel and most data systems) containing one row per account in the batch, sorted by account number.

What's Included in the Export

Notes on Specific Fields

Amount: This is the customer's full open balance — it includes everything currently owed: the current billing cycle charges plus all past-due aging amounts.

Letter #: This number directly corresponds to the delinquency level and is used to determine which letter or notice template gets sent to the customer. Level 4 accounts are credit card expiration warnings, not standard past-due notices.

Billing Email: If a customer has multiple contacts on file, the system selects the email address from the first billing-type contact that has a verified email address. If no verified billing email exists for a customer, this field will be blank.

ZIP Code: ZIP codes are exported in a format that prevents Excel from stripping leading zeros (for example, a New Jersey ZIP code like 07728 will remain 07728 and not be converted to 7728).

Summary of Delinquency Levels