This document discusses the process that applies ONLY for CIR LAW settlements. For other creditors, DPG will release other documents over time outlining their specific procedures.
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 5 steps involved in the negotiating process. With Direct Pay, there is no longer a need to call creditors to set up scheduled payments.
🔺For all CIR LAW 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. There are only 2 fields that need to be filled out, but it is critical they are filled out exactly as shown below:
When entering settlements into DPP, please instruct your negotiation team to set up the following fields by spelling the name exactly as CIR LAW.
Please do not abbreviate or deviate from this spelling or else it will fail to be paid and will need to be corrected manually. Because Direct Payments are processed directly to the creditor, it is no longer necessary to fill out the other fields in the Creditor Payee Details section as this information will no longer be required.
Please copy the reference 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 that shows the specific info that should copied over to the creditor reference field. Do not include the consumer’s name in parenthesis or shorten the reference number field.
Please double check the entries are correct before saving the settlement.
Lastly, when entering settlements, please continue to set the settlement payment type as an ACH/Check by Phone. DO NOT SELECT DIRECT PAY as this will cause issues and could end up as a missing or late payment. DPG will manually update these to Direct Pay until the software is ready and updated in a few months. 
Settlement Payment Decisions:
It's important to note that moving forward, CIR LAW settlements that are set up as Direct Pay will no longer be viewable on the Decisions Page.
Why?
DPG will be sending funds to creditors based upon the process date for CIR LAW 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 client.
What about low balance accounts? How do I advance if the decisions page is gone?
To help you manage this, DPG has created reports with advance features to address these exceptions.
DPG Reports:
DPG will be creating new reporting tools to help you manage Direct Pay transactions.
- Uncollected Settlements - lists out all uncollected/unpaid settlements in pending, shipped or low balance status. (Click here to learn more)
- Low Balance Forecast Report - list out all potential low balance accounts up to 2 weeks out. Features advance button to facilitate on-the-fly account adjustments. (Click here to learn more)
Lastly, at the beginning of each month CIR LAW will be sending out its own Uncollected Debt Payments report to you. It will STILL be your responsibility to review these reports and manage these missing or late payments directly with CIR LAW.
Questions:
Should you have any questions about this process or need further information, feel free to contact us at settlements@debtpaygateway.com.