Definitions
Key terms and ConcordLink-specific vocabulary.
This reference page defines the terms you'll encounter while using ConcordLink. Terms are organized by category: contact, client setup, payment, and regulatory.
Contact terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Attempt | Any effort to communicate about a debt with any person through any medium. Phone call attempts are calls that connect to a dialed number and include limited-content messages. Calls resulting in a disconnected or not-in-service notification do not count as attempts. Examples of attempts include:
|
| Client | A lender or originator whose portfolio is being serviced. Each client has its own configuration: time zone, account number format, outbound communication addresses, and portal branding. |
| Consumer or customer | The end user who owes money (for example, a timeshare holder). This term is used in reference to parties who hold contracts with Concord. |
| Contact made | Spoke with the consumer; no payment arrangement was made. |
| Default | Failure of a debtor to make timely payments of interest and principal as they come due, or to meet some other provision of a bond, mortgage, lease, or other contract. |
| Delinquency | Failure to make a payment on an obligation when due. The amount of past-due balances is determined on either a contractual or recency-of-payment basis. |
| Disposition code | A code used to indicate the current overall status of an account. Disposition codes control how an account is treated in the system. |
| Left message | A voicemail left for the consumer. |
| Limited-content message | A voicemail consisting of the business name, a request for the consumer to reply, the collector's name or names, and a telephone number the consumer can use to call back. |
| No answer | No response was received when contact was attempted. |
| Not called | The account is on hold or has a pending payment; no call was placed. |
| Prior consent | Consent provided directly by a consumer to the debt collector to initiate communication outside frequency guidelines or within specified inconvenient times and places. Prior consent for inconvenient time or place expires if the consumer provides a timeframe that has ended, revokes consent, or contact is made. Prior consent outside frequency guidelines expires after seven days. |
Client setup terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Contract | An agreement between two or more parties whereby each party promises to do, or not to do, something; a transaction involving two or more individuals whereby each has reciprocal rights to demand performance of what has been promised. |
| Customer Request Form | An email request exchanged among front-line employees, Contact Center operations employees, and account representatives. |
| Modification | An arrangement in which the consumer and the client have mutually agreed to bring a delinquent obligation current by adding the number of months delinquent to the end of the obligation. (See also: Extension.) |
| Obligation | The account, a single loan, lease, or billing relationship with a borrower. It belongs to exactly one product. Its financial state is tracked through ledgers. |
| Obligor | The borrower or co-borrower associated with an obligation. An obligation can have multiple obligors with different roles, such as primary obligor, co-obligor, and trustee. |
| Product | The business-rule template that governs how a class of obligations behaves. A client may have one product or several. Think of a product as defining what an obligation does, how payments spread, how interest accrues, what fees are assessed, what statuses apply, and what documents get generated. |
| Trust fund | Real or personal property held in trust for the benefit of another person; the corpus of a trust. |
| Trustee | A person or entity who holds legal title to property in trust for the benefit of another person, who is required to carry out specific duties regarding the property. |
Status categories
Every obligation has a status with a client-defined code (for example, OPEN) that maps to one of four system categories. Clients can create custom status codes tailored to their portfolio needs beyond these generic categories:
| Category | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Pending | The account is set up but not yet active. |
| Open | The account is active and open. |
| Paused | The account is temporarily suspended for reasons such as forbearance, bankruptcy, or an active dispute. |
| Closed | The account is no longer actively serviced for reasons such as payoff, charge-off, or cancellation. |
Payment terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Account receivable | A claim held against customers and others for money, goods, or services. Money owed to a business for merchandise or services sold on open account. |
| Amortization | The payment of a loan by periodic payments of principal and interest, resulting in a declining principal balance and eventual repayment in full. |
| Assignment | Signing over title, rights, or other interest to another person. Transfer of a debtor's property to creditors. |
| Bankruptcy handling | Chapter 7 (consumer) and Chapter 13 (debt reorganization) prohibit collection calls, letters, and negative credit reporting. You must update the system with attorney information and cannot contact discharged accounts. |
| Billing | An obligation structured for periodic billing of maintenance dues, club fees, HOA charges, or similar amounts. Obligation structure consists of named fee ledgers and a payment-application script. |
| Calculated fields | ConcordLink recalculates the obligation's denormalized display fields on an hourly schedule and after any obligation or transaction change. |
| Capitalize | When late charges, accrued interest, or other fees are added to the existing principal balance. |
| Chargeback | The reversal of an outbound transfer of funds from a consumer's bank account, line of credit, or credit card. Usually occurs due to a disputed transaction. |
| CPA (contractual payment amount) | The consumer's contractual payment amount, usually principal plus interest, as applicable. |
| Installment generation | When the installment date reaches the date to generate, ConcordLink generates the next installment as a journal entry on the installment ledger. Installments may also be generated early if a payment is received before generation. |
| Journal | An immutable entry in a ledger. It is the raw financial record of every transaction. Journals cannot be edited; corrections are made by adding reversing or adjusting journals. |
| Late fee assessment | After the grace period passes on an unpaid installment, the late fee assessment occurs on the product and is added to the account. |
| Ledger | The named balance record within an obligation. Common types include principal balance, interest receivable, and fees. Products can define additional ledgers for any purpose. |
| Loan | An installment obligation with a principal, interest, and a defined term. Payments reduce the principal balance and cover accrued interest. |
| Payment channels | Agent portal, customer portal, mobile app, IVR (interactive voice response), eBOX (bank bill pay), lockbox (check), and autopay. |
| Payment methods | ACH (one-time and scheduled), debit/credit card (tokenized via Cybersource), check (via lockbox), NCP, DCK, CCK, DIR (wire), down payments, and others. |
| Per diem | The amount of interest accrued daily (daily interest charge). |
| Principal | The face value of an obligation that must be repaid at maturity, separate from the interest. |
| Statement generation | Typically 15–21 days before the installment due date. Builds the statement content and queues it for delivery. |
| Zero transaction | The reapplication of funds that have previously been applied. A zero transaction moves money between ledgers. |
Regulatory terms
| Regulation | Description |
|---|---|
| BSA/AML | Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering. Red flags include large cash payments with immediate refund requests, unverified callers, and overpayments. |
| CAN-SPAM | Regulates commercial emails; messages must include valid contact information and an unsubscribe link. Agents are not permitted to send external emails. |
| CCPA | California Consumer Privacy Act. Protects consumer data. Concord does not sell consumer information. |
| CFPB | Aims to protect consumers by ensuring that banks, lenders and other financial companies treat people fairly. |
| Dodd-Frank Act | Consolidated financial regulation under the CFPB; handles consumer complaints and audits. |
| ECOA | Equal Credit Opportunity Act. Prohibits lending discrimination based on protected characteristics. |
| FCRA | Fair Credit Reporting Act. Standardizes credit reporting. Consumers can dispute incorrect reports; Concord has 30 days to respond. |
| FDCPA | Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. One contact per day per account; seven natural days between answered calls. Restricts disclosure to owners, co-owners, and authorized users only. |
| GDPR | General Data Protection Regulation. A European Union regulation that governs the collection, processing, and storage of personal data for individuals in the EU; requires explicit consent, data minimization, and breach notification within 72 hours. |
| SCRA | Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. Interest capped at 6%, no late fees, no negative credit reporting during deployment. |
| TCPA | Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Limits contact to one call per day per account with a seven-day hold after a consumer answers. |
Acronyms
For the full list of shorthand codes used in notes, call logs, and system fields, see Acronyms for Agents.