Recently, there’s been quite a bit of chatter about the Department of Education’s policies and procedures for collecting on defaulted student loans. While it’s widely known that the Department contracts out collections to third-party debt collection agencies, Kim Clark over at U.S. News & World Report has blown the whistle on the knee-jerk reaction of the Department to pull its collection procedure manual off the Web. This move is particularly troublesome against the backdrop of the Obama Administration’s pledge for transparency. Both consumers and attorneys have utilized the manual to better understand their rights and to ensure that debt collection agencies are playing by the book. The Department’s rationale for yanking the manual? Apparently, they don’t want consumers to know that debt collection agencies are allowed to accept payment of 90% of the debt owed.

If you have student loan in default, it might be helpful to know which agencies might be calling you. The Department of Education still lists its contractors here.

Here’s a rundown:

Progressive Financial Services
Allied Interstate
NCO
CollectCorp
Diversified Collection Services
Account Control Technology
FMS Investment Corp
Financial Asset Management Systems
Van Ru Credit Corporation
Immediate Credit Recovery
National Recoveries
Windham Professionals
Collection Company of America
Pioneer Credit Recovery
The CBE Group
Premiere Credit of North America
GC Services
West Asset Management
ConServe
Collection Technology
Delta Management Associates
Coast Professional
Enterprise Recovery Systems

For a peek into the system use to award contracts to private debt collection agencies, you can read an article in the debt collection industry publication InsideARM.

Apparently, contracts are awarded on a quarterly basis, based on a variety of performance metrics. For that reason, the debt collection industry keeps close tabs on which agencies are coming out on top. InsideARM reports that, for the period of April to May, Pioneer Credit Recovery topped the list, followed by CBE Group and NCO Group. From the numbers listed, it looks as though debt collection agencies managed to collect around $40 million during those two months.