MOSES LAKE - It's almost a given that an industry will go through major changes over the course of 60 years.

Businesses must adapt over time to new technologies and new ways of doing things. It happens in the auto industry, the farming industry and virtually any other industry you can think of.

Central Bonded Collectors owner Roy Warnick said it has happened in the credit reporting and collections industry as well. Warnick began working in the industry in 1970, when he officially joined his father's business.

Hugh Warnick established the company in Moses Lake with his wife Betty in 1954. The business was first located in a small office at the old Lake Theater.

"There were some old black and white typewriters, filing cabinets and enough room for three or four people," Warnick said. "That was the first office."

The business then moved to an Ash Street office before moving to its current location on Fourth Avenue in the mid-1960s.

The company had two separate functions in the early years, credit reporting and collections.

"The office was split in two, one side was reporting and one side was collections," Warnick said.

The reporting side of the company compiled and sold credit reports to different businesses, he said.

"Back then, everybody in town had their own charge accounts- drugstores, lumber stores, gas stations," Warnick explained. "They didn't want to let just anyone have credit, so by forming the credit bureau people could pull credit information on different individuals."

Businesses at the time were looking for some of the same information creditors today look for, including if someone paid their bills on time or if they were delinquent, he said.

Warnick said creditors needed to know all of this so they could determine if they would extend someone credit or not. Merchants were taking big risks extending credit to people, he said.

Warnick said he remembers collecting for the owner of the old market on Third Avenue.

"He had his own charge accounts for people to charge groceries, they were on slips of paper," he said. "When they didn't pay, he would give us those slips of paper and say please collect my money."

The company continued providing both credit reporting and collections services up until the mid-1980s when they sold the credit reporting side of the business to the Spokane Credit Bureau.

"Credit reporting was becoming so big, national networks like Equifax and TransUnion they had enough credit available they didn't have to call small local bureaus to get credit reports anymore," said Warnick.

Warnick said he and his wife Judy bought the business from his father shortly after that in 1985.

Judy Warnick said it was around that time that another major change in the industry took place. Credit cards became mainstream and smaller merchants decided they would no longer have their own charge accounts, she said.

"They thought why should I gamble and have my own accounts," Warnick said. "Even if they had to pay a little fee to have people use credit cards, it took the risk away from them."

With smaller stores no longer using charge accounts, they eventually stopped needing to use the collection agency. The company now specializes in medical, bad checks, retail, and commercial accounts.

The company is a member of the American Collector's Association and the state collector's association. That means they also get forwarded accounts from other agencies when a person moved to the Moses Lake area, she said.

"If they had somebody that lived in their area and didn't pay their bills and tracked them here then they would send us their accounts," she said.

Roy Warnick said most of the company's clients are located in Moses Lake, Othello, Ephrata and Quincy. They do some business in Mattawa and Coulee City as well, he said.

About 15 people work for the company right now, including the Warnick's daughter Kimberly Tibbs. She is the third generation to work for the family company.

Judy Warnick said it's been nice to see the company continue as a family business.

"It's great because the grandkids are the ones cleaning the office and that's how he (Roy) started and that's how our kids started," she said. "We may even get a fourth generation out of this we'll see, I know his dad would be proud of him to see the family still involved."