Field calls have been an effective loss mitigation tool for many years for a variety of different creditors. "Hard money" unsecured lenders such as Beneficial and Household Finance began field collection efforts in the late 1940's and auto finance entities such as GMAC and Bank of America have done so since the 1950's. Even today, local governmental municipalities utilize their own field investigators to recover millions of lost tax and fine revenues.

A trend towards outsourcing field collections and investigations has been seen in the last 20 years due to the liability issues of large corporations having employees in the field. Even with all of the technological advances in today's professional debt collection practices, a "personal field visitation" continues to be a highly effective tool in motivating the customer to resolve their delinquent account.

A "Field Contact" is a specific service request where a personal visit is made to a borrower's residence or place of employment to assist with re-establishing contact between the creditor and borrower. The role of this service is to act as the "eyes and ears" of the creditor and gathering data important to reducing loan losses.