Important Considerations You Need To Know About International Collection Agencies
If you’ve made the commitment to using commercial debt collection, you may be wondering whether or not it’s necessary to employ international collection agencies if some of your clients are overseas. Following are some questions that will help you decide whether international collection agencies are necessary, or if you can handle your own international debt recovery.
First, what is the percentage of your receivables that come from other countries? If you have one or two clients on other continents that are slow payers, it may not worth the time and effort to hire an international firm just for them. However, if a significant portion of your receivables come from other countries, it very well may be.
International debt collectors that you hire represent you, and can make a big difference in your reputation in certain markets. It’s absolutely imperative to hire one that fits in with local business practices. Professional but firm is the sweet spot; debt collectors need to avoid upsetting your clients while still remaining effective, and understanding local customs is an important part of that.
Because of the vagaries of international law, the third thing you need to know is that it’s best to hire international agencies that have lawyers on their staff. Laws change constantly.
That brings us to another important point: the best international collection agencies employ attorneys. In order to be effective, debt collectors they have to be familiar with local laws and with jurisdiction (the process of figuring out which laws govern an international transaction).
This being said, attorneys cost more than ordinary people when it comes to debt collection. If your receivables in a particular region are small, it may make more sense to just write off the debt, but once they reach critical mass you get more benefit than cost out of using an international firm.
If your business is spread out among many different regions, and you think it’s too much of a bother to hire several different international collection agencies, keep in mind that most debt recovery agencies do not charge unless they successfully recover money. For this reason, you can hire several of them, say one for Europe, one for Latin America, and one for Asia, and only pay fees if and when they recover money. Since in-house collections people are not very likely to be successful with international debt collection, it’s worthwhile to do this even if it means hiring more than one firm.
Another important question to ask yourself when trying to decide if international collection agencies are for you is whether or not you will be applying for any commercial loans in the near future. It is important in the process of getting a commercial loan to show that your receivables are in good shape. Even if you normally don’t need the services of international collection agencies, you may want to consider employing them for a period of time before you apply for the loan in order to make your cash flow look better.
