# Understanding our fees

ai-collect bills two ways depending on the mode you've chosen. The structure is intentionally simple — no hidden fees, no monthly minimums, no per-call charges.

## Third-party (3P) — contingency

If we collect on your behalf, you pay a **contingency** on amounts we recover.

| Fee                             | Charged when                   | Rate                                     | Notes                                                        |
| ------------------------------- | ------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Contingency on recovered amount | Each successful debtor payment | Per-creditor, configured on your account | Deducted from each Remittance ledger row before disbursement |

The exact percentage that applies to your account is set on `creditor.contingency_pct` and is shown in the MSA you signed at onboarding. New self-serve signups start at our standard rate; negotiated tiers (volume, enterprise) sit at their own rate. **Contact your account manager for your current rate** — we don't quote a flat headline number here because the rate varies by tier and contract.

How the math is applied:

* Fee is calculated **per payment**, not per placement. If a debtor settles for $700 on a $1,000 invoice, the contingency is your rate × $700.
* Fee is **snapshotted** at the moment a Remittance row is created. A later rate change never retroactively rewrites historic payouts — auditors will see exactly the rate that was in force when each dollar moved.
* Fee uses `ROUND_HALF_UP` at the cent — `$33.335` rounds to `$33.34`.

Examples (at a hypothetical 5% rate):

* Debtor pays $1,000 in full → you receive $950, we keep $50.
* Debtor pays $200 on a plan installment → you receive $190, we keep $10.
* Debtor doesn't pay → we keep nothing. You owe nothing.

### What's included in the contingency

Everything required to operate the collection effort:

* All voice and email outreach.
* Skip-tracing and debtor enrichment.
* Compliance evaluation (we maintain state-by-state rules).
* Call recordings and transcripts.
* The debtor payment portal.
* Stripe payment processing.
* Real-time dashboards and webhooks.
* Audit log retention.
* API and integration access.
* Customer support.

There are no separate "set-up fees", "monthly minimums", or "research charges".

### What's not included

* Attorney's fees if a placement escalates to litigation. Attorneys we refer to have their own fee structures.
* Special services like in-person process serving.
* Third-party fees you incur on your side (your bank's ACH fees, Stripe Connect transfer fees once they reach you, etc.).

## First-party (1P) — subscription (planned)

> 1P is **not generally available today.** The pricing tiers below describe a target model and are subject to change before launch.

If 1P ships, you'd use our software to collect on your own debtors under your own brand and pay a monthly subscription. You'd keep 100% of what you recover (no contingency layered on top). The trade-off is that you take the compliance risk and provide your own state licensing.

We are not quoting per-tier pricing here while 1P is still planned — talk to us if you're interested in piloting.

## How rate changes work

Your contingency rate is set on your creditor record by an admin. Self-serve signup currently writes the standard rate; negotiated rates are applied during onboarding. The **creditor settings PATCH endpoint does not let you change your own rate** — it's an admin operation, and any change writes an audit event.

Rate changes apply to **future** Remittance rows only. The snapshot on each existing Remittance is the authoritative record of the rate that was applied to that disbursement.

## Volume discounts

Volume discounts on 3P contingency are available for partners placing high monthly volume. Talk to your account manager.

## Reverse-engineering the math

To sanity-check our pricing against what you might pay elsewhere:

| Provider type         | Typical contingency    | Notes                                                                     |
| --------------------- | ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Traditional agency    | 25–50%                 | Human collector economics                                                 |
| Modern AI-native (us) | Lower than traditional | Agent does the work; voice minutes and LLM tokens are cheap and improving |
| In-house collections  | n/a (labor cost)       | Depends on staff cost and time                                            |

## TODO

* Screenshot: contingency rate on the settings page.
* Screenshot: snapshot field on a Remittance ledger row.

***

Last reviewed: 2026-05-12 by Finance Lead.


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