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Debt Management & Collection Services

Bad Debt Collection and Management Services

What is bad debt collection?

Unpaid invoices can seriously affect your business by slowing cash flow, reducing inventory turnover, harming credit ratings and even tarnishing your company’s reputation. The longer debts remain outstanding, the harder debt collection can be.

Late payments are an unavoidable fact of business life, using a proper bad debt collection strategy to ensure the prompt collection of unpaid invoices is an essential part of doing business. The key is to find resources to ease the inconvenience of managing and collecting late payments while also speeding up resolutions of these unpaid invoices.

Partnering with an organization that specializes in bad debt risk mitigation and collection, like Euler Hermes, is an important first step in recovering commercial debts. Plus, because we provide debt collection services as part of our  trade credit insurance offering, we can help you avoid more bad debts before they happen.

Bad Debt Collection Process

Collecting business debts is a step-by-step process that keeps costs under control and can be monitored continually.

  1. We start with careful research using a variety of public and proprietary data sources to acquire accurate phone numbers, email and physical addresses of the debtor and begin rapid outreach using all methods to ensure our request is clear, leveraging our name and reputation in the market.
  2. Because the likelihood of collections falls the older the debt becomes, our outreach is vigorous in the first 45 days, during which our primary objective is to reach the debtor directly to request payment in full. 
  3. Should payment in full be refused, our second option is to negotiate a short-term (under 12 month) payment plan, if authorized by you.
  4. Should the debtor still refuse to pay, we proceed with the legal process to seek payment through the courts. We can provide a legal service from judgment to enforcement action. We’ll discuss this with you before any action is taken.

6 Reasons to Turn to Euler Hermes for Bad Debt Collection and Management Services

Euler Hermes is a valued business partner for companies throughout the world. With nearly 100 years of bad debt collection experience, we now collect 380,000 debts per year in more than 130 countries. As a recognized industry leader within the credit insurance and debt collection industries, our name has a significant effect on late payers.

Here are six more reasons to choose Euler Hermes to handle your debt management and collections.

  1. Customer Relationships. Our primary aim is to secure full payment as quickly as possible while maintaining your customer relationships. We make every contact and call and write every letter to the customer with this in mind. Our goal is to obtain full and immediate payment of every overdue account, and without alienating your customers.
  2. Your Business is Our Business. Commercial collections require specialized knowledge and our unrivaled experience and expertise will be at your disposal. Our worldwide network of 600 commercial debt collections professionals have the skills and insight necessary to recover your money without risking your all-important trading relationships no matter what industry is involved.
  3. Our Resources. As part of the Euler Hermes Group, we have access to the very best available business knowledge. We can locate key information and individuals involved that other collection agencies would be unable to trace. Our credit intelligence information service is an exceptional network of sources that generates first-hand, up-to-date knowledge on 85 million companies around the world, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week
  4. Proactive Collection. Upon receipt of your instructions to recover the debt, we enter those details into our extensive database then assign a dedicated collector to manage your file. We make every effort to collect overdue accounts without resorting to legal action. We turn to the legal system only after we have exhausted efforts to settle each matter amicably. In these cases, we offer competitive legal fees and expert litigation services that can handle everything from pre-legal review through enforcement.
  5. Local Expertise. We work in every market and time zone, conducting negotiations in the local language and dealing with the intricacies of the local legal system.
  6. Our Strength. Our financial strength is the foundation of our long-term partnerships with clients. We’re a company of Allianz with a turnover of more than $3 billion and a Standard & Poor’s financial rating of AA.
View Our Solutions

Bad Debt Collection FAQs

No. When you take out a trade credit insurance policy with us you will be able to make use of our expert debt collection service.  It operates worldwide, covering all sizes of debt.
It varies depending on the case and country.  Economic, political and cultural reasons all affect customer behavior.  We aim to make an agreement with the debtor as quickly as possible. We like to avoid taking legal action as it can lead to long delays. When you work with our collection teams they will discuss with you what to expect and give you an idea of how long it could take.  If you are starting to trade with new countries you may also find it useful to download our debt collection app.
Sometimes we follow all the usual steps (before legal action) without success.  At that point, we’ll discuss the situation with you and explain what options are available.  If you decide to stop the collection activity at that point, we’ll close the case.  Alternatively, you might want to take legal action.  If it’s appropriate, we’ll let you know the chances of success, how long it could take and what it might cost so that you can decide whether to proceed.
Yes. We are committed to protecting your customer portfolio.  As a third party with a global reputation, local knowledge and deep insight into customer finances, we can often negotiate more effectively to make sure you receive payments when they are due. 
Your guarantee of a global service is our network of offices in 50 countries, including all the major economies in the world. That presence on the ground is backed by close partnerships with lawyers and collection agents in many more territories. In total, we can reach over 130 countries.
Yes.  Around the world, we employ more than 600 dedicated commercial debt collectors. We constantly invest in their training and the development of their skills.  The team is closely coordinated, working with systems and processes that define best practice in debt collection practices. Our collectors don’t just work for us, they work for you.  They are ambassadors for your organization when they focus on collecting the payments owed to you.
A trade credit insurance policy from Euler Hermes includes debt collection services and takes the worry out of nonpayment. It ensures invoices are paid and allows you to reliably manage the commercial and political risks of trade that are beyond your control. In the event an insured buyer fails to make payment, our expert collections can step in to do the heavy lifting for you.

Avoid more A/R losses before they happen and get paid for what you do

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