One of the areas of debt recovery that always amazes me is a debor's ignorance as to the contents of their own credit file. Rather than try to eplain this myself I thught I'd point you at this great resource that might help dispell a few myths.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/6266336.stm
Tuesday, 4 September 2007
Thursday, 16 August 2007
Get Tough As Debtor's Are Dodging With IVA's
More people are choosing to declare themselves insolventThe number of people going insolvent in 2006 is likely to have topped 100,000, official figures are expected to show.
Such figures from the government's Insolvency Service would set a new annual record for personal insolvency.
The last set of insolvency figures published, for the third quarter of 2006, showed a rise of 55% on the same three-month period in 2005.
Experts have blamed greater personal debt and more awareness of what insolvency involves for the rise.
"Consumer debt has more than doubled since 2000. Logically, the more people owe money the greater the number of debt casualties," Pat Boyden, a personal insolvency expert at accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
"There are other factors at play too. People are more aware of insolvency, the stigma is less strong. In addition, it is easier to access insolvency than before due to the increase in companies offering Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs)," he added.
The insolvency figures include people who went bankrupt and took out IVAs.
Most of the growth in insolvency has been due to people taking out IVAs.
Under IVAs the debtor - normally through an intermediary - comes to an arrangement with their creditor to pay back part of what they owe.
The debtor does not lose their home - as can happen under bankruptcy - but they can find that they have to live to a very tight budget, until their debts are repaid and their credit record is also damaged.
IVA providers have recently come under attack. Some lenders are unhappy that widespread TV advertising of IVAs may be encouraging more people to go down the insolvency route.
Such figures from the government's Insolvency Service would set a new annual record for personal insolvency.
The last set of insolvency figures published, for the third quarter of 2006, showed a rise of 55% on the same three-month period in 2005.
Experts have blamed greater personal debt and more awareness of what insolvency involves for the rise.
"Consumer debt has more than doubled since 2000. Logically, the more people owe money the greater the number of debt casualties," Pat Boyden, a personal insolvency expert at accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
"There are other factors at play too. People are more aware of insolvency, the stigma is less strong. In addition, it is easier to access insolvency than before due to the increase in companies offering Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs)," he added.
The insolvency figures include people who went bankrupt and took out IVAs.
Most of the growth in insolvency has been due to people taking out IVAs.
Under IVAs the debtor - normally through an intermediary - comes to an arrangement with their creditor to pay back part of what they owe.
The debtor does not lose their home - as can happen under bankruptcy - but they can find that they have to live to a very tight budget, until their debts are repaid and their credit record is also damaged.
IVA providers have recently come under attack. Some lenders are unhappy that widespread TV advertising of IVAs may be encouraging more people to go down the insolvency route.
Credit Searches.....don't cost the earth and can save you £1,000's
Credit Searches - BACK Report
You have no doubt heard that prevention is better than cure.
Now you have a way to check out your prospective customers and current customers to see just how an independant expert rates their ability to pay you as well as knowing exactly who you're dealing with and how they have been performing.
Many companies don't bother to credit check or only undertake a credit check when they start doing business.
When you trade on credit terms you're acting like a banker to your customers and you should know what risks you face from time to time. Would you expect a bank to lend money without checking out their customers ability to pay ?
It's also just as important to periodically check up on how your biggest or highest exposure clients are performing. Circumstances can change and you should know about these changes quickly so that you can adapt the customer's credit limits, credit terms or decide not to do business.
With incredibly low prices and instant access to most company reports you now have no excuse for not checking your customers.
With our credit reports and searches there are:
What are the prices?
Our service is one of the most competitive around. See below a list of the options available with prices and samples:
Limited company standard report, £4.99,
Directors report, £4.99,
Limited company detailed report, £9.99,
Non limited business report, £9.99,
Just go to www.back-report.co.uk for instant online credit reports.
You have no doubt heard that prevention is better than cure.
Now you have a way to check out your prospective customers and current customers to see just how an independant expert rates their ability to pay you as well as knowing exactly who you're dealing with and how they have been performing.
Many companies don't bother to credit check or only undertake a credit check when they start doing business.
When you trade on credit terms you're acting like a banker to your customers and you should know what risks you face from time to time. Would you expect a bank to lend money without checking out their customers ability to pay ?
It's also just as important to periodically check up on how your biggest or highest exposure clients are performing. Circumstances can change and you should know about these changes quickly so that you can adapt the customer's credit limits, credit terms or decide not to do business.
With incredibly low prices and instant access to most company reports you now have no excuse for not checking your customers.
With our credit reports and searches there are:
- No Contracts
- No Subscriptions
- Instant Delivery
What are the prices?
Our service is one of the most competitive around. See below a list of the options available with prices and samples:
Limited company standard report, £4.99,
Directors report, £4.99,
Limited company detailed report, £9.99,
Non limited business report, £9.99,
Just go to www.back-report.co.uk for instant online credit reports.
Even the big guys can get it wrong....
We just launched a new credit reporting site because the volume of collections cases we get where no effective credit search has been done is pretty alarming.
www.back-report.co.uk (more to follow later)
But it amuses me that the big guys have been getting their fingers burned for just the same reasons. Take a look at this !
The European Commission is to review the credit rating industry after suggestions the sector was too slow to warn on the US sub-prime loans crisis.
With the weakness in the sub-prime mortgage market sparking fears of a global credit squeeze, Brussels will probe the industry's voluntary code.
This code aimed to stop any conflict of interest over the fact credit agencies can be paid by the firms they rule on.
A Commission spokeswoman said it would look at whether legislation was needed.
Some of the largest credit agencies include Standard & Poor's and Moody's. Moody's senior managing director Frederic Drevon said the firm was "committed to continuing the constructive dialogue it has had with the regulators and policy makers".
Credit agencies work by determining the creditworthiness of a particular company or investment fund.
Their ruling helps determine how much interest the firm or fund in question will have to pay on funds they borrow.
The Commission's investigation will be led by the office of European Union Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy, who has responsibility for the financial services sector within the 27-nation block.
Its study is expected to continue until April next year at the earliest.
www.back-report.co.uk (more to follow later)
But it amuses me that the big guys have been getting their fingers burned for just the same reasons. Take a look at this !
The European Commission is to review the credit rating industry after suggestions the sector was too slow to warn on the US sub-prime loans crisis.
With the weakness in the sub-prime mortgage market sparking fears of a global credit squeeze, Brussels will probe the industry's voluntary code.
This code aimed to stop any conflict of interest over the fact credit agencies can be paid by the firms they rule on.
A Commission spokeswoman said it would look at whether legislation was needed.
Some of the largest credit agencies include Standard & Poor's and Moody's. Moody's senior managing director Frederic Drevon said the firm was "committed to continuing the constructive dialogue it has had with the regulators and policy makers".
Credit agencies work by determining the creditworthiness of a particular company or investment fund.
Their ruling helps determine how much interest the firm or fund in question will have to pay on funds they borrow.
The Commission's investigation will be led by the office of European Union Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy, who has responsibility for the financial services sector within the 27-nation block.
Its study is expected to continue until April next year at the earliest.
Tuesday, 12 June 2007
Flying High With Joint Venture
BACK inContact Directors Barry Kemp and Andrew Charlton are set to expand their growing interests in the UK credit market with the signing of a major joint venture agreement with one of the world’s leading players in outsourcing in the credit industry.
South Africa’s Daly Credit Corporation (DCC) are one of the most advanced providers in Call Centre’s specialising in the credit industry, representing many major banks and financial institutions.
Exchange Visits
Following recent exchange visits to the UK and South Africa by the BACK management team and DCC directors Bill Daly and Andy McNabb, BACK inContact and DCC have signed an agreement which will see BACK inContact exclusively represent DCC in the European Union and the Middle East, offering low cost call centre facilities to companies of all sizes on flexible easy in easy out terms, as well as supporting the existing BACK inContact low cost legal collections service with low cost collections calls.
Following on from a series of meetings with DCC at the world Call Centre Expo in Birmingham in October last year, BACK inContact selected DCC as their preferred partners and Charlton commented “We were delighted with DCC’s abilities and team and also thrilled to see the level of support offered to us by the Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN) Government and the City of Durban, where we hope to help create a number of jobs, as well as here in the North East of England.”
Flying High
To celebrate their new venture and the new investment by BACK in South Africa, the City Manager in Durban placed a helicopter at the disposal of the BACK management team to help them see the region they have partnered with and their new call centre facility as well as the site of DCC’s next call centre which DCC hope to open in the fourth quarter of 2007 with an extra 550 seats.
£1 Million Business
DCC partner Bill Daly said “We couldn’t have found a better team to help us grow our international business. Our ethos of low cost highly effective and efficient collections is matched by BACK and with Barry’s technical expertise and Andrew’s sector knowledge, they have over 25 years track record in the business. We expect the European and Middle Eastern business to represent around £1 million of our total turnover within the next 2 years and continue to grow.”
McNabb also added “In a global credit economy, we and BACK recognise that providing clients with top class customer service at a low cost is paramount to success and its great to see the best in the UK teaming up with the best in South Africa.
We we’re especially impressed with the quality of staff available in the North East of England and look forward to building on our relationship.” Barry Kemp said “KZN has many similarities with the North East of England and has a wealth of opportunities as well as a low cost base and a highly talented pool of skilled workers who will perfectly complement our UK and Ireland team in keeping cost down for our customers.”
Claim Online, Don't Bank On IT
Just as the credit industry strives to make itself into a respected profession who would you expect to let the side down ?
Dodgy bailiffs? Rogue Lenders ? No, don't be silly, it's the British public!
High on the greed of reclaiming a few quid in bank charges they think they have been overcharged (don't forget they were in the red to start with to attract the charges in most cases) the public has been clamouring for a piece of the banks and have been thronging to the Money Claims Online web site in such numbers to fire off their county court claim forms that the site has become swamped and can't cope with the routine claims that many businesses need to bring to keep things ticking along.
The court service are looking at a drastic change in their pricing policy for claim form issue fees and whilst thats very welcome in the market generally, one has to hope it's not going to lead to a further torrent of claims for overcharging on milk deliveries or some other greed rush. IT was meant to make our life simpler and unfortunately IT's anything but at the moment.
Check out the story at:
http://www.financemarkets.co.uk/2007/06/08/courts-online-claims-service-swamped-by-bank-overdraft-cases/
Dodgy bailiffs? Rogue Lenders ? No, don't be silly, it's the British public!
High on the greed of reclaiming a few quid in bank charges they think they have been overcharged (don't forget they were in the red to start with to attract the charges in most cases) the public has been clamouring for a piece of the banks and have been thronging to the Money Claims Online web site in such numbers to fire off their county court claim forms that the site has become swamped and can't cope with the routine claims that many businesses need to bring to keep things ticking along.
The court service are looking at a drastic change in their pricing policy for claim form issue fees and whilst thats very welcome in the market generally, one has to hope it's not going to lead to a further torrent of claims for overcharging on milk deliveries or some other greed rush. IT was meant to make our life simpler and unfortunately IT's anything but at the moment.
Check out the story at:
http://www.financemarkets.co.uk/2007/06/08/courts-online-claims-service-swamped-by-bank-overdraft-cases/
Thursday, 7 June 2007
Great Credit
Just a short post today to say that on Saturday our company had the honour to sponsor the graduation ball of the next gebneration of entrepreneuers and techies.
BACK sponsored the Graduation Ball for Northumbria Universities' School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences.
What a great night we had and the students, particularly those organising the event, were a real credit to their organisation and especially themselves. Pics to follow !
Well done to them all and best of luck for a bright future.
BACK sponsored the Graduation Ball for Northumbria Universities' School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences.
What a great night we had and the students, particularly those organising the event, were a real credit to their organisation and especially themselves. Pics to follow !
Well done to them all and best of luck for a bright future.
Thursday, 31 May 2007
Judgment Day Approaching ?
Yesterday I read with interest but no amazment that county court judgments have hit a record level for the last 10 years or so. It seems that everyone is heading back to the courts after years going in the other direction.
The truth of it is that collections only works, no matter how sophisticated you are, if you not only have threat but are prepared to carry it out.
Smart collections companies have rightly focused on early collection of accounts and a more conciliatory approach, after all they got lots of bad press for not being responsible lenders. However, they are now heading back round the cycle towards more aggresive early collection with legal remedies as the concern must be that with rising interest rates, plateau'd house prices and inflationary pressures that harder times are ahead.
One of the areas we have focused on in our venture here at backincontact.com is the rehabilitation of accounts using a legal identity early rather than the point of last resort.
Solicitor's letters have always been great tools for eliciting a response so why have they always been kept for the final conflict ?
I think you're going to see a growing demand for the legal remedy and I'm sure that this quarter's insolvency figures are going to bear that out, watch this space!
The truth of it is that collections only works, no matter how sophisticated you are, if you not only have threat but are prepared to carry it out.
Smart collections companies have rightly focused on early collection of accounts and a more conciliatory approach, after all they got lots of bad press for not being responsible lenders. However, they are now heading back round the cycle towards more aggresive early collection with legal remedies as the concern must be that with rising interest rates, plateau'd house prices and inflationary pressures that harder times are ahead.
One of the areas we have focused on in our venture here at backincontact.com is the rehabilitation of accounts using a legal identity early rather than the point of last resort.
Solicitor's letters have always been great tools for eliciting a response so why have they always been kept for the final conflict ?
I think you're going to see a growing demand for the legal remedy and I'm sure that this quarter's insolvency figures are going to bear that out, watch this space!
Wednesday, 30 May 2007
Welcome !
Well here we are, the first entry in a brave new world of blogging.
Our goal in life is to encourage businesses of all size to think about smarter ways of doing things, with a particular emphasis on the credit and technology aspects of business.
Why those two ? Well for a start it's the areas of business I have spent the last 18 years working in so from that perspective it seem logical. From time to time we'll be touching on other aspects of business but usually where I either have a bit of rant or bee in my bonnet about something and anything else is fair game if it impacts on credit.
This is a brave new world that allows companies of any size in any place to leverage technology to do things that were once the preserve of the few and the affluent. My business partner Barry and I feel we've dived in at just the right time and I'll do my best to explain why in coming posts.
Please feel free to post comments, experiences, hints and tips and keep this interactive where we can.
Happy blogging and lets get BACK to work. (BACK is the name of our company as you might quickly figure out, answers on a postcard as to why!
Andrew
Our goal in life is to encourage businesses of all size to think about smarter ways of doing things, with a particular emphasis on the credit and technology aspects of business.
Why those two ? Well for a start it's the areas of business I have spent the last 18 years working in so from that perspective it seem logical. From time to time we'll be touching on other aspects of business but usually where I either have a bit of rant or bee in my bonnet about something and anything else is fair game if it impacts on credit.
This is a brave new world that allows companies of any size in any place to leverage technology to do things that were once the preserve of the few and the affluent. My business partner Barry and I feel we've dived in at just the right time and I'll do my best to explain why in coming posts.
Please feel free to post comments, experiences, hints and tips and keep this interactive where we can.
Happy blogging and lets get BACK to work. (BACK is the name of our company as you might quickly figure out, answers on a postcard as to why!
Andrew
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