Bill and Account Collectors
Locate and notify customers of delinquent accounts by mail, telephone, or personal visit to solicit payment. Duties include receiving payment and posting amount to customer's account, preparing statements to credit department if customer fails to respond, initiating repossession proceedings or service disconnection, and keeping records of collection and status of accounts.
158,830 people do this job in the US. $47,030 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 64%
- 29%
- 7%
Measured, from Anthropic's usage data (2025). Counts help on part of a task.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 4.4 h long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 7%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 63%. Today's estimate: 63%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
The tasks
Sorted by . 15 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trace delinquent customers to new addresses by inquiring at post offices, telephone companies, credit bureaus, or through the questioning of neighbors.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 13% | 33 min17 min to 1.3 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Locate and monitor overdue accounts, using computers and a variety of automated systems.Done daily by most who do it. | 12% | 25 min10 min to 1.3 h | 99%Half by now | |
| Confer with customers by telephone or in person to determine reasons for overdue payments and to review the terms of sales, service, or credit contracts.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 12% | 25 min13 min to 42 min | Stays with people | |
| Arrange for debt repayment or establish repayment schedules, based on customers' financial situations.Done daily by most who do it. | 10% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Advise customers of necessary actions and strategies for debt repayment.Done hourly or more by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 8% | 17 min8 min to 25 min | Stays with people | |
| Record information about financial status of customers and status of collection efforts.Done hourly or more by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 8% | 13 min7 min to 21 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Persuade customers to pay amounts due on credit accounts, damage claims, or nonpayable checks, or to return merchandise.Done daily by most who do it. | 7% | 17 min8 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Locate and notify customers of delinquent accounts by mail, telephone, or personal visits to solicit payment.Done daily by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 7% | 17 min8 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Answer customer questions regarding problems with their accounts.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 7% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Sort and file correspondence and perform miscellaneous clerical duties, such as answering correspondence and writing reports.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Contact insurance companies to check on status of claims payments and write appeal letters for denial on claims.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 38 min17 min to 1.3 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Receive payments and post amounts paid to customer accounts.Done daily by most who do it. | 2% | 7 min3 min to 13 min | 100%Half by now |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Credit Authorizers, Checkers, and Clerks75% now, 86% by 2028
- Tax Examiners and Collectors, and Revenue Agents62% now, 90% by 2028
- Customer Service Representatives67% now, 67% by 2028
- Tellers35% now, 35% by 2028
- Billing and Posting Clerks77% now, 94% by 2028
- Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks76% now, 88% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).