More Americans are falling behind on their car loans, especially those with poor credit. According to Fitch Ratings, at the end of 2025, late payments for borrowers with good credit remained very low at 0.43%. However, late payments for borrowers with poor credit rose to 6.74%, up from 6.15% the previous year. These initial trends indicate that delinquency and loss rates within the Below Prime segment are likely to stay elevated for the long term.
Secure Collateral Management (SCM) has carved out a specialized niche in the automotive recovery industry by focusing on aged accounts, specifically vehicles that have been unrecovered for 200 to 500+ days. Our Deep Skip tactics contrast with standard industry practices by moving beyond just automated data hits toward multi-faceted investigative approaches, utilizing a nationwide scope and agents. This comprehensive strategy and proprietary tactics allow SCM to be your safety net for locating your most aged, even previously charged-off assets.
The following competitive analysis outlines how SCM’s Deep Skip tactics compare to some of our top market competitors.
Tactical Methodology: Deep Skip vs. Standard Skip Tracing
Traditional skip tracing often relies on static data including credit headers, utility records, and recent LPR (License Plate Recognition) hits. SCM’s Deep Skip is a tiered investigative strategy designed for vehicles and leads that have gone cold in the typical systems.
| Feature | Secure Collateral Management (Deep Skip) | Top Market Competitors (Standard) |
| Data Recency | Focuses on social footprinting, 50+ non-traditional data points, both active and passive LPR scans from more than 650 nationwide agents | Relies heavily on historical LPR databases and credit bureau updates. |
| Account Aging | Specifically optimized for 200+ days delinquent. | Typically pick accounts 30–90 days delinquent for higher ROI. |
| Effort Level | Expert skip investigators deep dive into secondary networks and proprietary tactics | Automated batch-processing and waterfall skip tracing. |
| Success Metric | Focused on Recovery Rate of total assigned non recoverables. | Focused on Volume and speed of turn-time for fresh assignments. |
Competitive Advantage in the 200+ Day Window
- The Deep-skip Strategy: Unlike competitors who often close files after 30 days without an LPR hit, SCM’s skip tracers acting as private investigators with over 15 years of experience utilize proprietary tactics to continue investigating the vehicle’s ecosystem through our Deep Skip team.
- Mitigating Information Sensitivity: In collateralized markets, the asset itself provides the security, but as time passes, the information on that asset’s location increases. SCM counters this by utilizing predictive behavior modeling, analyzing where a vehicle is likely to go based on historical scans and previous location sightings.
Competitor Strategy: The LPR & Batch Model
- Market Competitors: Most firms attempt to dominate the market through networks of subcontractors and integration with LPR providers. They are successful at finding vehicles still being driven openly. However, for deep skips (where the car is garaged, hidden, or moved nationwide), their outdated systems often hit a wall.
Market Positioning & Recovery Performance
- Recovery After Others Fail: SCM often receives files after recovery efforts have already failed with at least two other agencies. Their competitive edge is the ability to maintain a 25+% recovery rate on files that are nearly a year old, whereas industry averages for 200+ day files often drop into the single digits.
- Cost vs. Reward: Unlike traditional front-end forwarding, skip tracing an account is labor intensive as new information is uncovered to help recover or resolve the aged account. The increased contingency fees for skip tracing services are cost beneficial to the lender when it helps them avoid a total loss write off.
- Portfolio Optimization: SCM differentiates itself through skip-tracing expertise that resolves aged accounts either by locating the asset or confirming it is permanently off the road. Eliminating these unrecoverable units from an active repository cleanses client portfolios, prioritizing actionable leads and significantly boost recovery opportunities.
Summary of Competitive Stance
SCM wins on persistence and expert skip-tracer intelligence with the granular investigative bandwidth to find a vehicle hidden for 200+ days. SCM’s Deep Skip fills the gap where automation fails, turning lost assets back into liquid capital.