The mandatory cell phone registration seeks to end the anonymity of phone lines and combat crimes such as fraud and extortion. However, it could also have an effect on debt collection calls.
This is because those who fail to complete the registration will temporarily lose their phone service until they complete the process, which could make it more difficult to collect debts and cause millions of pesos in losses for the sector.
In an interview with Jaime Núñez on Radio Fórmula, Alan Ramírez, president of the Association of Collection and Legal Services Professionals (APCOB), warned that the deactivation of unregistered lines could represent a major blow to the debt collection industry, since a significant portion of credit recovery processes are carried out through phone calls, SMS messages, and WhatsApp.
“In debt collection, there is a very important premise: without contact, there is no recovery. Eight out of every 10 pesos currently recovered through debt collection are recovered through a mobile channel, an SMS, a phone call, or, failing that, WhatsApp,” he explained.
He also estimated that the economic impact could range from 8.5 billion to more than 28 billion pesos per year, depending on the number of lines ultimately deactivated and the difficulty collection agencies face in reestablishing contact with debtors.
“An account would usually take days to collect, and now we could be talking about weeks or no recovery at all,” he noted.
They Are Considering Returning to Door-to-Door Collection
Alan Ramírez commented that if a large number of phone lines are deactivated, new strategies could be considered, including a return to the door-to-door collection model.
“Perhaps one of the strategies we are considering is bringing back home visits, collecting payments directly at people’s homes,” he said.
He also noted that telephone contact often makes it possible to establish agreements that are highly beneficial for debtors, which could be lost if communication cannot be maintained.
He Asks Authorities to Speed Up the Recovery of Phone Lines
The debt collection sector specialist considered that, given the nature of the business, digital banks, Fintech companies, and personal loans could be among the sectors most affected.
For this reason, he called on authorities to speed up the process of reactivating phone lines once people complete the mandatory cell phone registration process, in order to prevent the greatest possible losses.
“With the recovery of phone lines, we believe we could be in a middle scenario of approximately 15 billion pesos, but certainly the impact will exist and it will hit the debt collection sector hard,” he concluded.
Cell phone registration can be completed through the official CRT website: www.registratulinea.crt.gob.mx, where users can also consult the calendar with the deadlines applicable to each user.
Source: radioformula
