Direct Pay Set Up - ARS National Services

This document discusses the process that applies ONLY for ARS National Services settlements.

The following provides an overview of the settlement negotiating process and describes the current procedures required to convert settlement payments from an existing payment type to Direct Pay (Click here to learn more about Direct Pay)

Overview:   

For normal ACH/Check-by-phone payment types, there are five (5) steps involved in the negotiating process.  With Direct Pay, the last step, there is no longer a need to call creditors to set up scheduled payments.

🔺For all ARS National Services settlements, please inform your team not to call in payments as they can cause duplicate payments with this creditor.   

Scheduling Settlements:

For Direct Pay payments, the information filled out in the Creditor Payee Details section is significantly changed. Once you have selected the payment method under the payment terms as direct pay, the CREDITOR PAYEE DETAILS section (left-hand side of the screen) updates with Direct Pay Details. Select the appropriate creditor. 

Please copy the ARS National Services Reference No. number exactly as listed on the settlement letter agreement to ensure the proper consumer’s account is credited when paid. Please note the purple arrow showing the specific info that should be copied to the creditor reference field. Do not include the consumer’s name in parenthesis, append the reference field with words like File # or Account#, or shorten the reference number field. Failure to adhere to this process may delay or cause the payment file to fail and require manual intervention.  Payments could be lost and shown as UNPAID.  

Please, double-check that the entries are correct before saving the settlement.

Other Accounts:

Below is a list of all accounts associated with ARS National Services that are Direct Pay Eligible.

If you are unsure about the payment methodology set up for any reason, contact your ARS National Services representative for instructions on how to make the payment.

Settlement Payment Decisions:

It's important to note that ARS National Services settlements set up as Direct Pay are no longer viewable on the Decisions Page.   

Why?   

Forth sends funds to creditors based on the process date for ARS National Services settlements, eliminating your daily task of approving each settlement payment. Furthermore, settlement payments will be paid only if the consumer has sufficient funds in their special purpose account. Any shortage in funds will result in the transaction remaining in Low Balance status until funds are available or advanced to the client.  

What about low-balance accounts?   How do I advance if the decisions page is gone?

To help you manage this, Forth has created reports that enable you to make advances to address these exceptions.

Forth Reports:

1. Uncollected Settlements - lists all uncollected/unpaid settlements in pending, shipped, or low balance status. (Click here to learn more)
   
   
2. Low Balance Forecast Report - list all potential low balance accounts up to 2 weeks out.  Features an advance button to facilitate on-the-fly account adjustments. (Click here to learn more)

At the beginning of each month, ARS National Services will send you its own Uncollected Debt Payments report. It will STILL be your responsibility to review these reports and manage these missing or late payments directly with ARS National Services.  

Questions:

Should you have any questions about this process or need further information, feel free to contact us at settlements@setforth.com.

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