Recovery competition heats up as repo assignments rise

Recovery agencies are becoming more competitive even with an elevated rate of repossessions as consumers face economic headwinds. Repossession volume for Nashville, Tenn.-based recovery company Resolvion has been flat year over year in 2026, Chief Operating Officer Darren Stavely told Auto Finance News , without providing volume specifics. Much of the repossession volume comes as middle- and lower-income households, as well as nonprime borrowers, face heightened affordability pressures, he said. “It reflects elevated consumer stress relative to pre-pandemic norms,” Stavely said. Subprime borrowing increased in February , while new- and used-vehicle costs remain elevated and subprime delinquencies continue to tick up . While tax refund season gives consumers a “temporary relief valve” to catch up on past due payments, repossession rates quickly rebound after the season ends, Stavely said. “It does soften recovery for a couple of months, but … it almost comes back with a vengeance,” he said. Competition increases Industrywide, repos are on pace to reach 10 million assignments and 3 million repossessions in 2026, Houston-based Automobile Recovery Bureau President Vaugh Clemmons told AFN . The recovery company’s 2026 assignments totaled 10,125 as of March 20, up 15.5% year over year, he said. That sustained volume has clients looking to optimize their recovery rates wherever possible, he said. “It’s not really a question of whether the volume is up or down; this market is crazy.” — Vaughn Clemmons, Automobile Recovery Bureau “It’s not really a question of whether the volume is up or down; this market is crazy,” Clemmons said. “Agents and clients are now becoming more selective [of assignments] … there is less tolerance for inefficiency.” Clients are evaluating repossession agencies on several factors, he said, including: Compliance; Days to recovery compared to competitors; and Recovery rates by county. The difficulty of an assignment can vary wildly, so recovery rates can be misleading, Clemmons said. Rising gas prices, due to the Iran war , and labor costs can also add up quickly if it takes multiple attempts to recover a vehicle, causing a “compensation gap” between the efficiency required and the profit repo agencies make, he said. Repo agencies profit $80 to $100 per recovery but can dip into the negatives if the recovery takes multiple attempts, he said. “When you’re making very low margins already, and you have something that increases that cost like fuel … how long can I let these rising costs continue?” Clemmons said. Some hide, others surrender While more consumers are evading repossessions, a higher number are voluntarily turning their vehicles in amid sustained affordability pressures, Clemmons said. The average recovery rate for a repossession agency has hovered around 25% to 30% of all assignments, down from 60% and 80% “years ago,” Clemmons said. That drop, he said, comes from more customers knowing how to keep their vehicles away from the eye of repossession agencies. “Consumers are getting wiser as to how to hide their cars,” he said. “They know you can’t go into a garage.” There’s also been an uptick in consumers voluntarily surrendering their vehicles, Clemmons said, noting that ARB’s voluntary repossessions rose 50% YoY in 2025. Surrendering their vehicle avoids the uncertainty of involuntary repossession, and to mitigate their own economic stress , Resolvion’s Stavely said. “Everything goes up. The payment’s up, the insurance is up, the maintenance is up, fuel cost is up,” he said. “It starts to feel like it’s not manageable, so they will take the opportunity to just surrender the vehicle.” Auto Finance News will present multiple invaluable events for industry professionals in 2026, starting with Auto Finance Summit East and Auto Finance Capital Summit in May. Register by March 27 for early-bird savings. To see event agendas and register, visit autofinance.live .

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Recovery competition heats up as repo assignments rise

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