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Stories Tagged ‘Bad Debt Protection’

Cheap factoring for small businesses is now available. Typically the minimum fees levied by lenders made factoring particularly expensive for small businesses with a turnover less than £500,000. Some may argue that there is no such thing as cheap factoring no matter how big your business is but I believe that a cost effective solution now exists.

At Smart Factoring Quotes we have a bundled fee solution which means that you pay one simple fee as opposed to a seperate service fee and discounting fee. For a recourse factoring facility this fee is 1.95% of the each invoice. If you wish to include credit protection to protect you against bad debts this fee increases to 2.95%.

This has been well received by virtually all small businesses that I have spoken to. The benefits include:

  • up to 85% prepayment against your invoices providing valuable working capital for your business
  • no minimum fees which can prove expensive when turnover dips
  • easy to calculate fees which can easily be priced into your product or service price
  • optional credit protection to protect you from bad debts

Typically my advice also includes an explanation about hidden costs as detailed in other posts on this forum but with this facility it is easy to use, transparent and easy to understand.

This is just a short post about using credit protection or credit insurance for a ‘non-recourse’ facility.

Some invoice factoring companies will offer their own policy that they underwrite themselves which will offer a true non recourse facility. One such lender is HSBC Invoice Finance and they offer a ‘Payment Under Guarantee’ where any covered debt is settled after 120 days. These policies can work very well but in terms of costs they are added to your service fee and as such are subject to VAT.

The alternative is to use a third party credit insurance company. Some argue it is better to let people do what they do best so in this instance they would use an invoice finance company for funding and an insurance company to provide cover against risk of non payment. In some instances better cover can be obtained against your debtors but it does mean managing two supplier relationships and it is important you comply with the requirements of the insurance.

I have been approached by a client today who has a ‘non-recourse’ facility with an independent invoice factoring company. This is to say they have a credit insurance policy to cover their debtor book. As such the client should not incur any bad debts as long as they operate within the given credit limits.

However, it has transpired that a customer of our client has gone under owing them £150,000. There was a £150,000 credit limit in place so the client thought everything was covered.

The insurance company has now come back and queried certain procedures relating to timesheets and the dates of invoices and our client has provided everything that has been asked.

In short they insurance company has paid £60,000 and is disputing the balance on what appears to be minor technicalities.

It is not my place to say who is in the right or wrong here but the important facts are that the independent invoice finance company advised the client he was set up on their insurance. Now that insurance company has disputed the claim the client is now left owing the lender for the balance of £90,000.

Without access to the full facts it is hard, in fact impossible, to establish blame. The important thing is to highlight that you should request full terms and conditions for any credit insurance that your lender arranges for you. You should ensure this has been received and understood prior to signing any agreement. Importantly you should also ensure that they can provide the limits that you require.