At a collection agency or in-house collections department, you persistently pursue debtors for past-due payments — making the calls, sending the letters, and applying the steady pressure that collections operations call "dunning."
The dunner's work runs on persistent outbound contact — calls, letters, occasionally in-person visits at older operations, with each touch documented and the cumulative effort tracked across weeks or months per account. The pace is set by aging reports — accounts moving through 30, 60, 90, and 120-day buckets, with the dunner's job to recover the balance before write-off. Dollars collected and accounts resolved are the operating measures.
The harder part is often the cumulative emotional drain of being the visible pressure on people in financial distress — repeated rejection, occasional hostility, and the moral weight of pursuing payment from people who genuinely can't pay. Variance is wide: at third-party agencies the work runs on commission; at first-party (in-house) collectors the cadence is steadier.
The right person for this carries professional composure through difficult conversations and maintains the rhythm of consistent outreach over time. FDCPA compliance training and ACA International credentials anchor advancement. The trade-off is the burnout risk in steady collections work and the modest pay typical of agency floor positions before commission earnings build.
It's your career.
Take the wheel.
Where this role sits in the broader career landscape — and where it can take you.
Turn your career record
into a springboard for growth.
Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
Roles with similar work and overlapping career paths
View all Admin & Office roles →At a collection agency or in-house collections department, you persistently pursue debtors for past-due payments — making the calls, sending the letters, and applying the steady pressure that collections operations call "dunning."
Median pay for a Dunner is about $46K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $34K to $66K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Active Listening, Speaking, Social Perceptiveness, Persuasion, and Writing.
Most people in this role hold a high school diploma.
Employment in this field is projected to decline about 10.5% through 2034, with roughly 165,020 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include Account Representative, Collection Clerk, and Billing Representative.
Remember “your permanent record”?
This time it works for you.