 The first-party writes off most of the value of the debt in the sale to a third-party collection agency.According to a 2005 article by Christopher Palmeri, the public relations risks to the first-party collection agency associated with defaulted debt collection are reduced by passing on the debt collection to the third-party collector.First-party creditors are outside companies hired by a creditor "to collect on accounts that are between 30 and 90 days past due but not yet charged off as losses by the creditor."