"As the economy continues to recover, collection agencies and debt buyers need a broader and fresher data set that is representative of recent economic conditions," Peter Ghiselli, a vice president in TransUnion's specialized risk group, said. "This new recovery model is built on current consumer credit data to incorporate the evolving credit landscape, allowing collectors to see a substantial improvement in the number of payers and dollars recovered."

TransUnion used its CreditVision recovery model to expand the amount of information available to collectors. It found that collectors who used the model, when compared to collectors that did not, recovered 13% more money from their top 10% of collection accounts and lifted their number of payers by 11%.

TransUnion attributed the difference to the prioritization that the additional data allowed collectors to make. The additional data, the firm said, allowed collectors to recognize accounts that were more likely to pay and focus their attention on those first.

"For collection agencies and debt buyers, every dollar recovered is important, but collectors need to prioritize accounts that have a higher likelihood to pay," Ghiselli said. "With the new recovery model, collectors have greater insights into account history, actual payment amounts and other important credit factors to maximize both recovered accounts and recovered dollars."