Debtor tracing platform for New Zealand collections teams

A collections ledger is a queue of two decisions repeated at volume: can this person be located, and is there anything behind them. Most teams answer them in the wrong order and at the wrong cost. Contact details are chased first, agents are instructed, letters go out, and only after weeks of activity does someone discover that the debtor entered a no-asset procedure four months ago or that the only property in their name carries a registered security interest ahead of every unsecured creditor in the file.

intelID answers both in the same enquiry. Address and contact data from directory, digital footprint and credit file sources is compared so the most recently recorded address is visible rather than inferred. Property and title data show what is owned. PPSR registrations show what is already secured and to whom. Insolvency data shows bankruptcy, no-asset procedures and debt repayment orders. Company records show whether the debtor holds directorships or shareholdings that change the recovery picture, including the trading entities behind a personal guarantee.

For a portfolio, the value is triage. Files that cannot be recovered are identified and closed early. Files with a real asset position are prioritised while the asset still exists. Files where the debtor has simply moved are progressed with a current address rather than another cycle of returned mail. Recovery rates depend on your portfolio and process, and we do not publish figures we cannot substantiate. What we will say is that in most ledgers a meaningful share of files are uneconomic to pursue and a smaller group are genuinely recoverable, and the value of the search is telling them apart in the first week rather than the sixth month.

A file usually opens with an address history search or a credit-linked address search to confirm the debtor can still be reached. Where the file has gone quiet, digital footprint tracing adds a phone number or email as a second point of contact. Once the debtor is located, an asset search covering property, PPSR and company holdings tells you whether pursuing the file makes economic sense, and an insolvency search confirms whether the debtor is already in a formal process that changes what you can do next.

The registers behind those checks are the ones you would search directly if you had the time: title records from LINZ, security interests on the PPSR, company records at the Companies Office, and bankruptcy and company insolvency data from the Insolvency and Trustee Service.

Debt collection is a recognised purpose under the Credit Reporting Privacy Code 2020 for recovering a debt already owed to your organisation, but it does not extend to speculative enquiries or files where the debt relationship has not been established. Every search still needs a declared, accurate purpose, and address or contact data drawn from a credit file is subject to the same limit.

1. Open the file and declare the authorised purpose, which is debt collection for a debt owed to the client.
2. Run an address history search to confirm the debtor can still be reached at the address on file.
3. Run an insolvency search first if the file has been dormant for some time, to rule out a formal process that changes the recovery path.
4. Where the debtor has not moved and is not insolvent, run an asset search to weigh recovery against cost.
5. Where the file has gone quiet, add digital footprint tracing on the last known phone number or email.
6. Prioritise, progress or close the file, with the audit record supporting the decision made.

A collections team holds a file for an unpaid trade account where contact stopped six months ago. An insolvency search is run first and returns nothing. An address history search shows two addresses, the older one matching the file and a newer one from a directory source three months old. An asset search against the newer address shows a registered mortgage and no PPSR interest ahead of unsecured creditors on any known personal property. The file is reprioritised for direct contact at the newer address rather than being escalated straight to an agent. No individual details or amounts are recorded here, only the order in which the checks were run.

Collections is the area where access controls matter most, because the volume is high, the staff turnover is real, and the data is credit reporting information governed by the Credit Reporting Privacy Code 2020. A single search run without a lawful purpose is a complaint, and the organisation, not the collector, wears it.

intelID requires an authorised-purpose declaration on every search before results are returned. Access is granted by role, so a collector working consumer files does not hold the reach of a recoveries manager. Every query is logged with the user, the timestamp, the sources read and the declared purpose, and the log cannot be edited by the person who created it. When a debtor complains or an auditor asks, the answer is a record, not a reconstruction.

Also available: individual and commercial credit checks from Centrix and Equifax.

Subject data is not used for marketing, is never resold, and is never exposed to public indexing. The statutory detail sits on the compliance page, the hosting and encryption position on the security page. Locating a debtor and testing recovery viability in one place is covered on the skip tracing page, and each source with its legal basis on the data sources page.

Reports are for your own internal business purposes and the purpose declared when the search was run. They may be disclosed to your client, or to a court, tribunal or regulator, in connection with the matter the search was run for. Anything wider needs our prior written consent. The position is set out in clause 7.1 of our terms and conditions.

Subject data is not used for marketing, is not resold, and is not exposed to public indexing. How a trace runs end to end is on the skip tracing page, the workflow on the platform page, every integrated source and its legal basis on the data sources page, hosting and encryption on the security page, and the statutory position on the compliance page. Pricing is a monthly subscription plus a per-search fee, published on the pricing page. Cost tracks the work rather than the headcount.

Address history searches, credit-linked address searches, asset searches and insolvency searches.

The Credit Reporting Privacy Code 2020 for collections teams and skip tracing for debt recovery in New Zealand.