# Chasing Bad Debts - Debt Collection Agencies



## BobbyFowler (3 May 2006)

I've got my own business, selling advertising around the country.  My average sale is 400 Euro.  At this stage I have several people who have owed me money for over 6 months.  I'm wasting a lot of productive time, getting too immersed in chasing this rather than going out and making money.  The fact that I'm following up on relatively small sums of money, I was wondering if anyone could recommend an agency who I could pass these debts over to?


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## my2leftfeet (3 May 2006)

I've heard a company called Interim Justia [or somelike like that] advertising  on the radio for that very purpose.


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## Tirl (4 May 2006)

We used experian and didn't find them very good at collecting the debt and they turned out to be expensive, so we then got a lady we knew to use our headed paper and send out formal looking letters and she was much more successful, she charged a fee per letter and the a % of the debt when she recovered it, found this was the most cost effective solution


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## GoldDigga (4 May 2006)

I agree with Tirl. This seems like a much less expensive option and people are likely to cough up when they recieve intimidating letters in the post.


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## BobbyFowler (5 May 2006)

That sounds good - would it be possible to send me on that persons details (if they're happy with it) and I could chat to them. Thanks.


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## smithy (5 May 2006)

BobbyFowler said:
			
		

> I've got my own business, selling advertising around the country. My average sale is 400 Euro. At this stage I have several people who have owed me money for over 6 months. I'm wasting a lot of productive time, getting too immersed in chasing this rather than going out and making money. The fact that I'm following up on relatively small sums of money, I was wondering if anyone could recommend an agency who I could pass these debts over to?


 
Until recently I worked for a small company who had a few late & non payers. The debt collectors weren't great. Instrum Justica & Dunne & Bradstreet are 2 fairly reputable firms but proceed with caution!! I clearly remember one case where there was a debt of Euro 1100.... when all was done & dusted, my boss recieved Euro 201.04????? The mind boggles! My boss then chose another route to try to recover approx 1500, he got a solicitor on the job and got a judgement registered against the guy who was a sole trader. The judgement is held aginst the guy's property so if he ever goes to sell it, the debt must first be cleared. The solicitor charged over 400 quid which my boss had to fork out and he's still not been paid the initial debt. I would suggest, if you are only dealing with a figure of 400 or so.... get yourself into the small claims court, it might cost you 20 quid but those that owe you will sit up and take notice.


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## Icarus (6 May 2006)

smithy said:
			
		

> I would suggest, if you are only dealing with a figure of 400 or so.... get yourself into the small claims court, it might cost you 20 quid but those that owe you will sit up and take notice.



I'm not entirely certain but I think that the small claims court may only be used by individuals claiming against companies, not companies against other companies or registered bodies. Although don't take that as gospel as I'm not 100% on it.


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## colli (6 May 2006)

Icarus said:
			
		

> I'm not entirely certain but I think that the small claims court may only be used by individuals claiming against companies, not companies against other companies or registered bodies. Although don't take that as gospel as I'm not 100% on it.


 
I'm not 100% sure either Icarus, but if they don't handle this sort of thing ... they _should!!!!_


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## MandaC (6 May 2006)

A good tip when trying to collect debts and getting nowhere is to send a seven day letter, advising them that if the debt is not settled within seven days of the letter, that you will be passing the account to a solicitor for collection.  Send the letter by registered post.  

For some reason,  once they see registered post, they know you are serious!!!  It works for me in about 75% of cases.  If they do not respond to the registered post, then I know I really do have to send them a solicitors letter.


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## RainyDay (6 May 2006)

Small claims court handles consumer claims against businesses, not business to business claims.


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## Capaill (8 May 2006)

Bobby

Thankfully I have not had many late payments.  Those that I have had caused me the stress, frustration and waste of time that you mentioned in your original post.

One way I have gotten people to pay up is to threathen to apply the late payments regulations if they do not pay up with a number of days.  This legislation allows you to charge interest and reasonable expenses on top of the original invoice.  In each case, payment was forthcoming within the specified time limit.

http://www.entemp.ie/enterprise/smes/latepay.htm

http://www.entemp.ie/publications/trade/2002/latepayguide.doc

C


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## lff12 (8 May 2006)

My Dad's been a sole trader for years and unfortunately found this to be par for the course.  His most succesful moethod for getting paid quickly was to offer "discounts" for those paying by cash and within 30 days.  Basically this was the acutal price - and anybody else had to pay a hiked up rate based on the cost of calling in to find that "he's on the golfcourse/in the riviera/discussing bankruptcy with his solicitor."

Needless to say he still found over the years that he lost thousands in revenue and time due to these clowns.  He's usually written it off where the customer was somebody he got to know well.  Sadly he himself ended up in situation far worse than any of them, despite the efforts above, and no summer home in the Reviera etc.  Such is life.


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## BobbyFowler (17 Jul 2006)

Only coming back to this now.  It really has been frustrating chasing some of these amounts.  From the other posts I can now see how common this is.  I've another two debts which I was debating sending to a solicitor or not. Looks like I'm just going to have to accept these debts.......Pity.


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## z107 (17 Jul 2006)

For €400, is there any way you can just get them to pay up front?


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## BobbyFowler (18 Jul 2006)

It's a bit complicated but the answer is no.  Actually had a chat with my solicitor (I know him personally) earlier and explained the situation.  The reality is that my average ad sale is 400 Euro - I've sold ads to 600 people and all but 10 of them have paid up.  I think it just comes with the territory.


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## Bazza (19 Jul 2006)

Hi guys, This is my first time repling to anything. I work in the property industry and bad debts can be an issue. I have found a excellent company for debt collection called southern cross solicitors and their web site is  [broken link removed]


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## RainyDay (21 Jul 2006)

Hi Bazza - No disrespect, but posters round here are often cynical about recommendations like this from first-time posters.


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## Bazza (24 Jul 2006)

Hello RainyDay

No disrespect, and understand concerns.


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## Jiminie (27 Jul 2006)

I work for a Collection agency, I know you guys don't take too kindly to advertising (Which btw is totally understandable) so I wont mention the name. However... if anyone wants to talk to me about this topic just send me a private message.


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## Lorz (28 Jul 2006)

I'm surprised you're looking for names - we're being hounded several times dailly with Credit Control companies looking to speak to the owner/MD!  LOADS of co's out there offering it.

We don't use any of them - I find persistence on the phone usually pays off, if not - 7 days letter by registered post (as previously posted) - followed by "Final Communication" stating that the matter is now being passed to solicitor and all costs incurred in recovering the debt incl. Interest at 9.75% will be passed to client.


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## RainyDay (29 Jul 2006)

Lorz said:
			
		

> I'm surprised you're looking for names - we're being hounded several times dailly with Credit Control companies looking to speak to the owner/MD!


You'd better start paying the bills so.


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## Dinarius (15 Sep 2008)

Two questions:

1. Typically, how much should one expect to pay for a solicitor's letter?

2. If it gets to that stage, do others pursue this cost also? e.g. If, having issued a solicitor's letter, you receive a cheque for the invoiced amount, do you return it uncashed with a bill for the total including the cost of the solicitor? Or do you cut your losses?

I almost never have bad debts. I've got one at the moment for about €1800 and he is annoying me to the point where I'm tempted to screw him for my legal costs too ( though I haven't instructed a solicitor yet).

Will try the registered letter first though.

Thanks.

D.


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## S.L.F (15 Sep 2008)

I must say this thread has given me some food for thought.


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## Dinarius (23 Sep 2008)

Registered letter has had no effect yet.

I'll give them until next week and then send a solicitor's letter.

This is so(!) time consuming!

D.


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## DavyJones (23 Sep 2008)

I seem to have to "take a day off" every six weeks to chase money. I always call to where the person works/lives and I find it works in most cases. I try not to think about money owed unless I'm actively chasing it, otherwise you would be driven mad.

As it's been said already, It is par for the course and thankfully most people pay their bills on time with no hassle.


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## S.L.F (16 Nov 2008)

DavyJones said:


> thankfully most people pay their bills on time with no hassle.



I agree with you here.

I have always worked to the honour principle being that 99% people will pay their debts when presented with the bill so I do everything possible to get the job done right in order to have the job up to scratch ie I honour my half of the agreement even though I never know if I'll be stung.

I never needed a written contract because 99% of the people who I dealt with have been decent and upstanding and I have always gotten paid.

However there is the 1% who are scumbags have no morals whatsoever and will think up any excuse whatsoever not to pay you what you are entitled to.

Having recently been stung for over a thousand euro I'm revising my ways to ensure people know they will owe me interest after 30 days and having read some of the links there will be other costs involved as well.

So in 30 days I'll be owed over a thousand euro plus interest and a flat fee of €70 plus legal costs, if that is not met then I'll go to the commercial court where I'll get a judgment against the people concerned.

This ought to mess up their credit rating too!

I don't have time to be chasing people to pay me my money, I've done the work I should get paid. In full.

End of rant.


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## Apsil (24 Nov 2008)

Luckily in the industry I'm in we are able to require 100% payment up front, or at least to cover the first amount of work (and then we simply don't work beyond that until we receive second payment). We've lost the *very* odd client due to this but the impact on our bad debts has been worth it - we simply haven't had any in the past six years and do not spend huge resources chasing it down. We made a decison that there is such thing as "bad business" and we are happy to lose it. You have to market hard enough to have more sales opportunties than you need in order to be able to do this though! Maybe there is a structure you can work within similar to this?


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## atkin (4 Dec 2008)

Hi ,
     I have small outstanding debts that are not worth paying a solicitor to reclaim . 
I was told by the court service that you can do this yourself.
I did my own divorce and the procedure is similar using the same court forms found at www.courts.ie.  I still need exact advice to have everything correct as a judge is never too happy about a lay person in court.
 Any help appreciated.
 Atkin


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## RossieGooner (5 Dec 2008)

did anyone hear all the chat on the Joe Duffy this week in relation to Briddock O'Sullivan Debt Collection company ? They sound like some outfit . i dont think....


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## Pennyscraper (27 Feb 2009)

For the record: -

A business can't charge legal costs to a consumer, only to another business. A district judge will only enforce payment of the bill. Never costs.


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## Kluivert (8 Dec 2009)

I work in Credit Control for my company. Its a pain but am glad of the work to be honest. 

Calling Calling and more calling is what works in my opinion. Always and I mean Always record every conversation with a customer. 

Ex: 08/12 09.08am 

Spoke to Jimmy in Accounts 

Jimmy said he would do out a cheque for outstanding invoices for the sum of 100e on Friday 11/12 and will post that evening. 

Always confirm: 

Amount owed with customer 
When payment will be done 
When payment will be posted. 

Record this in every conservation. If customer miss the payment then you can go back to them and state well I spoke to you on the 08/12 and you said you where doing payment on Friday, that was the arrangements you made, you miss that and therefore send on payment this evening as you agreed last week. 

Also we allow payment plans to be set up with customers whereby the customers spreads the debt over 4 weeks say with 4 post dated cheques. 

Also calling into the customer works as well. If you have reps on the road then they should contact their customers a couple of days in advance stating am due to call next week, "the account is € X have a cheque ready unless there is any queries which I will go through with you then and then afterwards you can settle up the account". 

We have a UK operation as well and there is no one over there doing my job because in the UK and European the consenus is you pay your bills on time. OK the manager spends a couple of days ringing the odd customer but nothing to the extent that is required with Irish customers. 

I also find you need to be tough with Irish customers and dont be afraid to be tough but polite and professional. Do not swear and threaten people. Irish attitude is attack is the best defensive or igornace is bliss. Dont let this happen. Remind the customer they where the ones who made the arrangements and its their repsonsibility to fulfill it. 

Finally, every year you should set out a credit contol bad debt target. "Bad Debts can be no more than 2% of annual sales". There will also be bad debts. Dont lose focus with collecting debts, focus on the business and if your a one man band set aside one day every two weeks to ring customers, record calls, follow up. 

Good Luck.


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