Collections Specialist Skills & Requirements (2026 Data)
Skills, experience and job titles from 1,079 US job postings by 622 employers. Data as of October 2026.
What US employers post for collections specialists: advertised pay, the skills and experience they ask for, and the job titles they use, from 1,079 open job postings (October 2026).
- The skills that most set collections specialist postings apart are collections, Excel, negotiation.
- Postings that state a minimum ask for a median of 2 years of experience.
Collections Specialist job postings in the US, October 2026
- 1,079
- US job postings from 622 employers
- 2 years
- Median experience asked
How much does a collections specialist make?
Figure withheld: fewer than 250 US postings list pay. How we decide.
What is the starting salary for a collections specialist?
Figure withheld: fewer than 250 US postings list pay. How we decide.
Skills employers ask for in collections specialist job postings
| Skill | Share of postings |
|---|---|
| Communication | 52% |
| Excel | 33% |
| Attention to detail | 28% |
| Organizational skills | 27% |
| Problem-solving | 25% |
| Customer service | 23% |
| Microsoft Office | 22% |
| Work independently | 18% |
| Analytical skills | 15% |
| Word | 15% |
Skills named in the posting text; at most 20 postings per employer; US, October 2026. Methodology.
Skills that set collections specialists apart
- Collections265.4× as often as in all postings · 12%
- Excel3.2× as often as in all postings · 33%
- Negotiation10.6× as often as in all postings · 12%
- Negotiation skills14× as often as in all postings · 10%
- Outlook3.4× as often as in all postings · 14%
- Empathy6.6× as often as in all postings · 8%
- Microsoft word5× as often as in all postings · 7%
- Accuracy3.7× as often as in all postings · 5%
Skills named in at least 5% of these postings and at least 3 times as often as in job postings overall.
Have a collections specialist job posting in front of you? See which of its skills your resume is missing.
What does a collections specialist do?
Employers post these jobs as Collections Representative, Collector, Collection Specialist, Collections Analyst, Senior Collections Specialist and other titles. The largest specializations are Skip Tracer (under 1%).
The closest official occupation is Bill and Account Collectors (43-3011.00). Its most important tasks:
- Record information about financial status of customers and status of collection efforts.
- Locate and notify customers of delinquent accounts by mail, telephone, or personal visits to solicit payment.
- Locate and monitor overdue accounts, using computers and a variety of automated systems.
- Arrange for debt repayment or establish repayment schedules, based on customers' financial situations.
- Advise customers of necessary actions and strategies for debt repayment.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (CC BY 4.0).
How much experience do you need to be a collections specialist?
Among 480 postings that state a minimum, the median is 2 years. 2% say 0 years and 34% ask for 1 year or less.
Minimum experience asked in 480 US collections specialist job postings: median 2 years, and 34% ask for 1 year or less.
The figures as a table
| Minimum experience asked | Share of postings |
|---|---|
| 0 yr | 3% |
| 1 yr | 30% |
| 2 yrs | 37% |
| 3-4 yrs | 21% |
| 5-7 yrs | 8% |
| 8-9 yrs | under 1% |
| 10+ yrs | under 1% |
Postings that state a minimum (required or preferred); at most 20 postings per employer; US, October 2026.
We do not show a degree figure: in our checks, degree requirements in posting text were found too rarely to publish one. Why.
Other names for a collections specialist: job titles employers use
| Job title | Employers using it |
|---|---|
| Collections Specialist | 220 (35.4%) |
| Collections Representative | 54 (8.7%) |
| Collector | 30 (4.8%) |
| Collection Specialist | 26 (4.2%) |
| Collections Analyst | 23 (3.7%) |
| Senior Collections Specialist | 14 (2.2%) |
| Collections Manager | 14 (2.2%) |
| Collections Coordinator | 14 (2.2%) |
| Collections Specialist II | 13 (2.1%) |
| Collections Supervisor | 12 (1.9%) |
| Collections Clerk | 12 (1.9%) |
| Collections Agent | 11 (1.8%) |
| Collections Associate | 11 (1.8%) |
| Credit & Collections Specialist | 10 (1.6%) |
| Collection Agent | 8 (1.3%) |
| Bilingual Collections Specialist | 8 (1.3%) |
| Medical Collector | 8 (1.3%) |
| Collections Specialist I | 8 (1.3%) |
| Collections Rep | 8 (1.3%) |
| Collections Administrator | 8 (1.3%) |
Titles read in our audit and used by at least 3 employers.
Collections Specialist compared with similar careers
| Career | Median pay | Median experience | Postings | Shares N of top 25 skills |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Collections Specialist | – | 2 years | 1,079 | – |
| Claims Adjuster | $78K | 3 years | 2,669 | 19 |
| Customer Service Representative | $19.00/hr | 1 year | 33,817 | 21 |
| Dispatcher | $22.21/hr | 2 years | 4,190 | 18 |
| Freight Broker | – | 2 years | 689 | 20 |
Similar careers
| Career | Shares N of the top 25 skills | Median pay |
|---|---|---|
| Claims Adjuster | 19 | $78K |
| Customer Service Representative | 21 | $19.00/hr |
| Dispatcher | 18 | $22.21/hr |
| Freight Broker | 20 | – |
| Sales Coordinator | 18 | $23.00/hr |
| Office Manager | 18 | $23.31/hr |
Applying for collections specialist jobs?
- Collections specialist resume examples: one-page examples for these roles
- Match your resume to a job: paste a posting and see the skills your resume is missing
- Check your resume: see how an applicant tracking system reads it
- Find collections specialist jobs: search open postings
Source and method
Open US job postings collected from employers' applicant tracking systems, de-duplicated, counted only when their job title was read in our audit. Shares count at most 20 postings per employer, and franchise locations of one brand count as one employer. Pay uses hourly and annual figures only; a figure is shown when leaving out the largest employer moves it by 10% or less. Every figure states its number of postings. Methodology and measured accuracy.
Accuracy check: we read 20 randomly chosen postings counted on this page in full; 19 of them were this career or a closely related one (October 2026).
Download the figures on this page (CSV): every number above with its count of postings. Aggregate figures are licensed CC BY 4.0; cite the page when you reuse them.