Repo companies generally make between $150 and $400 per car in base recovery fees, and total revenue per successful recovery often reaches $400 to $600 once storage, key fabrication, and other add-ons are included. That’s the gross figure per completed job. What a repossession company actually keeps per car is much smaller, because most assignments never produce a paid recovery and the fixed costs of running trucks and lots are heavy.
The Base Fee for a Standard Recovery
For a standard passenger car, SUV, or light truck, the flat fee a lender pays for a successful recovery falls in the $150 to $400 range. Where a company sits inside that band comes down to volume. A firm running hundreds of assignments a month for a national lender accepts lower per-unit fees for the steady work. A smaller operator that takes selective assignments or works a niche market can hold out for the top of the range.
Nearly all lender contracts are contingent. The repo company gets paid when it secures the vehicle, and not before. Some agreements include a smaller close fee or attempt fee when the agent locates the car but can’t recover it for a documented reason, but that payment is a fraction of the full rate. The lender pays the repo company directly and then usually adds those costs to the deficiency balance the borrower owes after the vehicle is sold at auction.
Voluntary surrenders, where the borrower simply hands over the keys, sometimes pay a reduced fee because they take less labor and carry less risk. Not every contract distinguishes between voluntary and involuntary jobs, but when they do, the easy ones pay less.
Add-On Fees That Lift the Per-Car Total
The base fee is the floor, not the ceiling. Under the Uniform Commercial Code, the costs of retaking, holding, and preparing collateral for sale are treated as reasonable expenses that get priority when the lender distributes the proceeds of the sale.1Cornell Law Institute. Uniform Commercial Code 9-615 – Application of Proceeds of Disposition; Liability for Deficiency and Right to Surplus That framework gives repo companies room to bill several categories of post-recovery work.
Storage is the largest add-on. Once a repossessed vehicle sits on a secured lot, the company charges a daily rate that commonly runs $20 to $50 depending on the market. A car sitting two or three weeks before the lender arranges transport can generate $300 to $700 in storage fees alone, which can match or exceed the original recovery fee.
When a vehicle is recovered without keys, the company may need to fabricate a new ignition key or use specialized tools to move the car. Locksmith and key fabrication charges typically add $150 to $300. Transport fees for moving the vehicle to a different location after recovery, particularly on out-of-area jobs, add another layer.
Personal property left in the car is not a reliable revenue stream. Most states require repo companies to inventory belongings and make them available to the borrower, often at no charge or a nominal fee.
Skip Tracing and Speed Bonuses
Some borrowers are hard to find. When a debtor has moved, hidden the vehicle, or gone quiet, the repo company has to do investigative work before an agent ever attempts a recovery. Skip tracing involves database searches, public records, surveillance, and sometimes physically canvassing neighborhoods. Companies that specialize in these accounts can charge much more, with skip trace recovery assignments reportedly running $650 or more per vehicle.
Separately, some lender contracts pay tiered bonuses for speed. An assignment closed within 24 or 48 hours might pay an extra $50 to $150 on top of the base fee. These bonuses reflect lender urgency on high-priority accounts where the collateral could be damaged, further depreciated, or moved out of the jurisdiction. Stacking a speed bonus on a base fee turns a routine $300 job into $400 or $450.
Specialty Vehicles Pay More
The $150 to $400 range applies to passenger vehicles. Specialty collateral pays a lot more because it needs different equipment and carries different risk. Recovering construction equipment, an RV, a commercial truck, or a boat calls for heavy-duty trailers, a CDL-licensed driver, and greater liability exposure. Fees for these jobs commonly run $500 to $1,500 or more per unit depending on size and complexity.
Geography also shapes per-car pay. Rural recoveries that require long drives eat into margins on fuel and time, so contracts for remote territory often include mileage reimbursements or higher base rates. Urban companies see more volume but pay more for lot space, insurance, and access to gated communities or parking structures.
Why Per-Car Fees Overstate What the Company Earns
This is the number that changes the whole picture: a 2025 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report on auto finance data found that only about 27 percent of accounts assigned for repossession were actually completed.2Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Repossession in Auto Finance The rest end because the borrower catches up on payments, the lender cancels the order, the vehicle can’t be located, or the agent can’t safely reach it.
If a firm takes 100 assignments a month at a $300 base fee and recovers 27 vehicles, its gross base revenue is $8,100, not $30,000. The company still burned fuel, labor, and time on the other 73. Under a contingent model, every unsuccessful attempt is a cost with no matching revenue.
Close rates vary by company, region, and the mix of assignments a lender sends. A firm with strong skip tracing and experienced agents might push above 30 or 35 percent, but even the best companies absorb a large volume of unpaid work.
Costs That Cut Into the Per-Car Number
The distance between what a repo company collects on a car and what it keeps is set by heavy fixed and variable costs.
- Tow trucks. A new wheel-lift or flatbed truck typically runs $75,000 to $150,000. Used trucks at auction can be $25,000 to $75,000, with higher maintenance costs and less reliability on overnight runs.
- Insurance. A company with a single tow truck doing repo work can expect to pay roughly $10,000 or more per year in commercial insurance covering vehicle damage, third-party liability, and on-hook coverage for the collateral.
- License plate recognition. Many companies now mount LPR cameras on trucks to scan plates while driving and match them against open assignments. A single camera setup can run $15,000 or more in hardware, plus ongoing data subscription fees.
- Fuel and maintenance. Trucks burn fuel on every attempt, including the ones that produce no revenue. Tires, transmissions, and general wear add up fast on vehicles that run nights and weekends.
- Licensing and bonding. Most states require agencies to hold specific licenses, with fees that commonly run from several hundred to over a thousand dollars a year. Many states also require surety bonds.
Industry data suggests repossession company revenue has grown modestly in recent years, while the number of businesses in the industry has declined, a sign that smaller operators are being squeezed out by rising costs and stagnant fees.
What Owners and Agents Actually Take Home
Salary data for repossession agents as of mid-2026 shows average annual income of roughly $70,000, with the middle 50 percent earning between about $58,000 and $85,000. Top earners at established companies or those running their own shops report incomes above $100,000. Those figures reflect a mix of per-car commissions, hourly wages, and in some cases a share of storage and ancillary fees.
For an owner, the math is different. A small operation recovering 30 to 50 vehicles a month at an average total revenue of $400 to $600 per car, including storage and add-ons, generates $12,000 to $30,000 in gross monthly revenue. After truck payments, insurance, fuel, technology, lot rent, and any employee wages, the owner’s take-home is a fraction of the top line. This is a volume business with tight margins, and the companies that hold their ground are the ones investing in LPR technology and data analytics to lift their close rates, because recovering one extra car out of every ten assignments moves the bottom line more than squeezing an extra $25 out of the base fee.