Credit Control Solutions

Competition to Win 2 x Credit Check Packages worth over £500.00...!

We are offering 2 lucky people the opportunity to win 12 months access to our online credit check service worth over £500. There are no catches and no small print. What you see with this offer is what you get…!

What’s in the package Jamie?

• 12 months access to our on-line credit check service
• You can check any UK Limited Company or Unincorporated Business
• You can credit check any UK Director
• You can perform media searches on any Business/Director in The UK
• You can perform as many credit checks as you like – there are no limits

All services are for 12 months, and the package value is £500+

So how do we win it then?

This is the easy bit! All you have to do is ‘Like’ our Facebook Business page! That’s it! Then on 17th July we will put all of our Facebook ‘fans’ into a random generator and pick out 2 lucky winners..!

That’s it?

Yep, that’s it – go to our Facebook Business Page, click on the “Like” button at the top, and you’re in with a chance! Ask a question on the page and we’ll put you in the draw twice!

Post details of our offer on your own Facebook profile (use the “SHARE” button at the bottom of our page on the left) and we’ll enter you a third time!

It’s that simple – so if you want to be in with a chance to win one of our 2 credit check packages available in this offer, which will ultimately help you to reduce your bad & doubtful debts, help you to make informed decisions about who you grant credit terms to, or if you just want to be nosey and see how well (or not) your friends companies are doing go to our Facebook Business Page, and “LIKE” us now!

 

Jamieo "Making your cash flow"

Help Needed with New project - CPM & CPC Advertising Space Sellers Required...!

www.allgigs.co.uk (My brother's company) is one of the UK’s most popular events websites, attracting 1.5 million page views per month. They are looking for an individual or ideally a large company to pitch (and win) extra advertising revenue (in a CPM or CPC model). If this is you, then please get in touch and we will sort-out a generous revenue share scheme.

Buy-One-Get-One-Free Debt Collection Promotion!

We have a “BOGOF” offer on the following debt collection services this month. 

Letter Before Action Service - We charge £12.50 + VAT to issue a letter before action for you. This includes; sending out the letter, making 1 follow up phone call and reporting back to you. For further information on this service please click here

Statutory Demand Service – We charge £60.00 + VAT to issue a Statutory Demand for Payment. This includes; posting the demand to the registered office address (or in the case of an individual, or unincorporated business, to their trading address, or home address), posting it to a Directors home address and emailing it to any number of email addresses, plus 1 follow up phone call and reporting back to you. For further information on this service, please click here

To be eligible for this offer you must email us here.

Jamieo “Making Your Cash Flow”

Special Facebook Promotion.!

The first 5 people who sign up to our Business Facebook Page from our newsletter, will receive 1 month free of charge on-line access to our credit checking service. Our credit check service is second to none and can be used to search any UK Limited Company, Unincorporated Business, or UK Director. Just to clarify, this offer is unconditional and can be used for as many credit reports as you require.

If you haven’t already subscribed to our newsletter and wish to do so to take advantage of this great offer, you will firstly need to sign up to our Facebook Page and then subscribe to our Newsletter by clicking here

So, if you wish to receive our free credit check offer:

1. Click our Facebook link above
2. subscribe to our Newsletter (if you haven’t already done so)
3. Finally, email us here to let us know and we will set you up and email logon details to you straight away.

Jamieo “Making Your Cash Flow”

Exclusions* This offer excludes existing credit check customers of CCS and is only open to new fans of our Facebook Page.

CCS Launches new “Pay-as-you-go” Credit Control Service!

Off of the back of our continued success, we have just launched our “Pay-as-you-go” outsourced credit control service. Unlike our competitors, we listen to feedback from prospects and customers and they have been telling us for some while that a “Pay-as-you-go” outsourced credit control service is what they want, so that is precisely what we have given them..!

You can use our credit control service for as little as one day, for a week, for a month, for 3 months, for 6 months, indefinitely, or on a “project” basis. You can use it to assist your in-house credit control to collect your money more quickly. You can use it to blitz your ledger periodically, or just as a one-off. In essence, I am saying that you can use our service and pay for our service when it suits you as opposed to being tied in to silly and lengthy contracts that mean you have no choice but to pay for a service that you no longer need.

Our “Pay-as-you-go” outsourced credit control service can be used for so many different reasons. I have listed a few below just to help you on your way. 

• To Cover holidays or any absence
• To cover maternity/paternity leave
• To compliment your in-house credit control function
• To completely replace your in-house credit control function
• To replace the need to employ expensive temporary credit controllers (we are better and way less expensive)
• On an interim basis whilst you recruit a new credit controller 

I could go on, but, I think you get the picture..! Just to clarify, you can use our service for any conceivable reason that you wish – all you have to do is ask us. 

To summarise our offer:

• You can use our service for a day, a week, or any period of time that you wish
• It can be used for any reason that you require
• You pay us when you want us and not when you don’t
• There are no set-up charges, no minimum charges and no silly contract tie-ins.

Interested? Then email us here, or telephone us here, quoting ref “PAYGCC" and get a special introductory offer..!

Jamieo “Making Your Cash Flow”

Free Credit Control Resources: Google (Update)

We are currently doing a debt collection job for our friends at Invicta Power Service and once again using Google has provided us with some invaluable information..!

We took on this job on 25th May 2010. We sent a Statutory Demand for payment to:

• The Registered Office Address
• The Directors Home Address
• and to several email addresses that we picked up from Google.

3 days after we had sent the demand, we received a telephone call from one of the hairdressing salons concerned. She acknowledged receipt of the demand and said that she would get the director to call me.

Needless to say, we never heard back from the director.

On 2nd June, I sent a chase up email to the Director and once again heard nothing back.

On 9th June, Invicta Power Service informed us that they had been contacted by the director and fixed up a meeting to discuss monies owed. At the meeting the debtor agreed to pay, but payment has not been forthcoming at the time of writing

Today 14th July 2010, I contacted the Director on his mobile phone and he "pretended" that he was not the debtor. When I pushed him, he became incredibly abusive F'ing & blinding etc. We thought this was funny and simply laughed at him. Anyway, I got my message across to him - i.e we would issue Winding up Proceedings against him if payment was not forthcoming.

After this telephone call, I informed our friends at Invicta Power Service of my telephone conversation with the debtor and said that it would be unlikely that we would recover the money for them on this occasion. The debtor is a wide boy etc.

After putting the telephone down, I took my own advice and started to do some research on Google. Even I was amazed at what I managed to uncover. It turns out the debtor:

• Received a 4 month suspended jail sentence for a physical assault of a Dr in Ashford, Kent.(incidentally, the Dr concerned was beaten up so badly that he can no longer practice as a Doctor)
• Is a Parish Counselor
• Is on "Linked In" and we happen to have several friends in common..!

The above information is very useful to me in debt collection terms, as, clearly I have established that the debtor has both an on-line & offline reputation to protect and we will obviously use this to our advantage.

Incidentally, our friends at Invicta Power Service paid us £60.00 + VAT to use our statutory demand service. For this service, we will:

• Issue a Statutory Demand for payment to several addresses and by email, fax etc
• Make one follow up phone call to try and secure payment.

In reality, we always do more work for our customers than we actually charge for. In this case, we have

• Issued the Statutory Demand for Payment.
• Sent 3 chase up emails
• Made 5 x phone calls to the debtor &
• Spoken with our friends at Invicta 3 times.

So, you know where to come for cost effective and added value debt collection

Jamieo "Making your cash flow"

I will name the debtor in due course, if we do not recover the debt, so that we can warn everybody in Kent not to do business with this guy/company

Free Credit Control Resources: Google

You’ve no doubt heard the saying “You can run, but you can’t hide” This saying is more true today in credit control & debt collection terms than it has ever been.

 

Anyone who is “anyone” has a web presence these days. This is especially true with companies and businesses. Companies & Businesses with any "nounce" will have a website at the very least. Most of them would also have jumped on the social networking bandwagon in some way shape or form. In addition to this, there are blogs, forums, discussion boards – I could go on, but I think you get the picture.

 

Before you do business with a prospect you should at the very least check them out on Google by searching both their company name and the name of the principle director. You will be amazed with the information you can find.

 

In addition to this, you should also check out all prospects using Companies House Webcheck Service – click here to be taken to an article that shows you how to use this service.

 

I will give you 2 recent examples that I have personally experienced that will reinforce how great Google is as a free credit control/debt collection resource.

 

Example 1

We are currently undertaking the credit control function for the trade body for independent record labels. Their customers are obviously in the music industry and therefore have a very large web presence: YouTube, MySpace, Facebook etc. One of their debtors that has owed them money since 2007 disappeared off of the face of the earth. We slowly but surely tracked him down using Google – we found them on practically all of the Social Media networks and eventually made contact with them through a generic email address that we found on the web. The result was: we received payment from this debtor a week ago.

 

Example 2

This example relates to a one-off debt collection job that we did a few weeks ago. The debt collection job related to search engine optimisation & on-line  marketing work done by our customer for the debtor in question. The debt owed was £950 We issued a Statutory Demand for Payment and sent it by post to the registered office address, the Directors home addresses, by fax, by email to named individuals and to generic email addresses that we found using Google. Contrary to popular belief, Statutory Demands do not need to be personally served – you merely need to prove that the debtor received the demand (I digress). Back on track, by using Google, we discovered that the Managing Director of the debtor company had a huge on-line presence and made regular posts on several forums, his blog etc. Perhaps the most important thing that we discovered though was that the Managing Director was also a Magistrate. In other words, this guy had a very big online & offline reputation to protect. We of course used this information to our advantage and received payment a few weeks ago.

 

The above are just 2 examples Google can be used in a variety of ways to help you with your credit control

 

For more useful hints & tips why not sign up to our credit control mailing list (sign up box towards top left of your screen)

 

Jamieo "Making Your Cash Flow"

Free Credit Control Resources: Companies House Webcheck Service

We are going to do a series of hints and tips on free credit control resources that are available to help you manage your credit control better. We are starting with Companies House today.

Using the Companies house webcheck service is a much under used resource that we are going to shout about from the roof tops in order to help reduce your exposure to bad debt…!.

Their webcheck service allows you to get lots of invaluable information on any UK Limited Company. You can check companies out by name or by using their company registered number. Even if you don’t know the precise name of the company, you can find them by simply typing in the first few letters of their name and tabbing through the list until you find them. Anyway, back on track….

By using the webcheck service you can find out basic information such as:

·   Date the company was incorporated (this is useful to help you assess whether or not you wish to do business with a new prospect. If it is newly incorporated, you may wish to ask for a deposit, or to put them on an automated form of payment, such as: Direct Debit or Continuous Payment Authority etc)

·   Company Type

·   Nature of Business (SIC Code)

·   Accounting Reference Date

·   Last Accounts Made up to

·   Next Accounts Due (This is very useful and will highlight if they are late filing their accounts. Normally, if accounts are filed late, this is a red flag and means that the company is in some form of financial difficulty)

·   Last Annual Return Made up to

·   Next Annual Return Due (This is also very useful and will highlight if they are late filing their annual return. If annual returns are filed late, again, this is a red flag and means that the company is more than likely in some form of financial difficulty)

All of the above information is free; you can however download copies of annual returns and company accounts directly from companies house website for a nominal fee. However, unless you are an accountant, it can be difficult to asses a companies creditworthiness from a set of accounts.

We would suggest that you always check out new customers using companies house webcheck service. This is better than not checking them out at all and will at least give you more of an idea as to their creditworthiness. If for example a prospect is late filing their accounts and or annual return, we would suggest that you check them out further by doing a credit check on them.

Free resources can be very useful, but, you do normally get what you pay for and if you pay nothing, you normally don’t get very much. Having said this, Webcheck is a useful service and without a doubt if used wisely, it will certainly help you to reduce your exposure to bad debt.

Far better though, is to credit check any new prospect before you do business with them. Credit Check existing customers at least once per year – especially if you have noticed a change in their payment habits, or, if they have started to trade with you more than usual, meaning of course that your risk of bad debt is a lot higher.

If you require further information on our credit checking service, please email us. We can give you online 24/7 access for a silly price, or, you can email us your list of debtors and we will check them all out for you and email you copies of the credit check reports, or you can use us for the odd credit check here and there – the choice is yours

 

Jamieo "Making Your Cash Flow"

Property Maintenace Company - a Case Study

A Property maintenance company outsourced their credit control to us a week ago. They were at their wits end and found us on the web. They called us in a desperate state saying they had previously outsourced their credit control to one of our competitors, but they simply did not understand their business and were as much use “a chocolate tea pot”

 

The Managing Director went to great pains to explain how their business worked – they do maintenance work for large property management companies. This is how it works; the property management companies collect rent and service charges from their customer’s typically residential or commercial blocks. An element of the money they collect from their tenants goes towards property maintenance. The property management company raises a works order and instructs our client to do the work.

 

Our client does the work and raises an invoice to the property management company, quoting the works order number, the property address etc. The property management company then fails to pay them. So much so that 80% of their aged debt was owed for longer than 90 days – a pretty poor state of affairs and no wonder that cash flow was a major problem to them.

 

It was only after we had imported all of their aged debt data into our own credit management software that we realised there were more problems to overcome…!

 

In the normal course of events when creating a sales ledger account, you would create one account per debtor, but, our customer has created one account for each property that they did work on.

 

E.G, let’s say that our client was appointed by Joe Bloggs Property Management to do some maintenance work on the following 4 properties:

 

1.     Alderley Rd, Beddington

2.     Chatsworth Rd, Debyshire

3.     Ladywell Rd, Lewisham

4.     Congruit Rd, York

 

Once the work had been completed, what they should do is raise 4 separate invoices on the account of Joe Bloggs Property Management. What they are actually doing is creating 4 separate sales ledger accounts in the names of the properties – Alderley Rd, Chatsworth Rd, etc and then putting the name of the actual company that instructed them to do the work (Joe Bloggs Property Management) in the contact name field within Sage

 

On the face of it, I can partly understand why they are doing it this way (so they can break down how much money they are owed on a “per property” basis), but it is the wrong way of doing it and is one of the major reasons for their credit control nightmare…! You could quite easily achieve the same thing in Sage by creating one debtor account in the name of Joe Blogs Property Management and then setting up separate departments for each property that you do work on. When you raise an invoice, you select the relevant department (property). This enables you to report on monies owed by debtor and by property if you choose.

 

In the normal course of events when telephoning a debtor and chasing for payment, you click into their account, make your call and then reel off a list of invoices that you are chasing. Due to the way in which our clients’ sales ledger is structured, it is impossible to do this. There is no way that you can see “at a glance” what is owed. We would quite literally have to click in and out of 100 individual accounts in order to reel off a list of invoices owed by the debtor. Firstly, we do not have the time to do this (and it is not a smart way of working in any event) and secondly, I doubt the debtor would be impressed with our taking up several hours of their time on the phone either..!

 

We have designed and tailored a report within Sage Line 50 that groups all of the individual properties by Debtor. Once the report has been run, we export it into Excel and email it to the debtor. The report contains all of the information that they require enabling them, to put their comments on the spreadsheet and email it back to us. We worked in a very similar way with a large physiotherpay practice a couple of years ago in order to manage all of their individual debtor claims with Health Insurance Companies.

 

We are both happy because it saves lots of time and does the job in a less intrusive way than phoning them up wasting hours of their time on the phone. Our client is happy, because there is now some structure to their credit control and they can plainly see that their cashflow nightmare will disappear very quickly.

 

To see all of our testimonials/case studies, click here

 

Jamieo "Making Your Cash Flow"

Late Payment Legislation - is it Worth it?

Late Payment Legislation – is it Worth it?

As you can probably guess from the title, we are not huge fans of Late Payment Legislation, or to give it its proper name: “Late Payment of Commercial Debts Regulations 2002” Don’t get me wrong I am not completely against it and it certain cases it can and does work, but, when you look at the time involved in administering this legislation is it really worth it from a commercial perspective?

 

It sounds all great and wonderful and it makes it look as though the government is taking action against Late Payment, but, in reality are they really? Lets look at a few of the facts, through an example

 

Let’s say you had an invoice outstanding for £900 dated 31^st January 2010 on 30-day payment terms. For the purposes of this interest calculation the date today is: 23^rd May 2010

 

There is a useful interest calculator on the “Better Payment Practice Campaign” website which can be used to calculate statutory interest due in accordance with  “Late Payment of Commercial Debts Regulations 2002” or indeed for any contractual interest due in accordance with you terms of business/contract

 

Using the above interest calculator, it shows you are due £17.19 in interest. In addition to this you are also able to claim a one-off late payment compensation fee of £40.00, making a total of £57.19 to be claimed.

 

Here comes the tricky bit..! If you use Sage or another competent accounts package, there is a facility for you to calculate interest and automatically add it to accounts with an overdue balance. I am sure that you will also be able to use this function to add the late payment compensation fee too?. If not, you will either need to raise an invoice to your customer for the interest and late payment compensation fee, or journal it onto their account with you and write to them to let them know about it.

 

For the purposes of this example, let’s say you are using Sage Line 50 and choose to automatically add interest and the late payment compensation fee. Once you have added the fee, you will need to let your customer know about it, either by writing to them or sending them a statement. This is easy enough to do in Sage, but you must remember there are costs involved in taking these actions. Let’s say that you choose to write to the debtor to inform them. The cost of sending a letter will generally be circa £1.50 when you include all overheads etc

 

Ok, your customer receives your letter and completely ignores your claim for interest, but does pay you the £900.00 they owe you. This means a balance of £57.19 is left outstanding on the account. You will need to make a decision as to what actions you are going to take in respect of this small outstanding amount. Do you continue to chase this balance, thus potentially putting at risk future trading with your customer? Do you leave the balance outstanding and choose not to chase it? Questions, questions eh.

 

Whatever you decide to do, there is a big chance that you will end up having to write this balance off at some stage. This of course means more work for you – i.e. you will need to raise a journal and again this will be at a cost.

It is ok, if you only have a handful of accounts to manage, but, lets say you have 100 accounts on your ledger and 50 of them are charged late payment interest and late payment compensation, when you look at the amount of work involved in writing most of these small balances off is it really worth charging interest in the first place? Probably not?

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Jamieo "Making Your Cash Flow"

 

What Is Good Credit Control All About?

What is Good Credit Control all about?

In essence good credit control is all about making sure that everything you do within your company that impacts on getting paid is done properly and diligently, from making the initial contact with your prospect right through to sending them an invoice and of course all of the important steps in between.

 

Let me explain: You receive a new enquiry from a prospect. They ask you for a quote. Before providing them with a quote, you should credit check them to see whether or not they are a viable company and perhaps more importantly so that you know the legal entity you are dealing with. The quote you provide them with should be very detailed and include details of precisely what your prospect is getting for their money. It should also include your payment terms and what they have to do to accept your quote.

 

An order should then be signed. Again, the order should be very detailed about the product or service you are supplying, it should make reference to the quotation and once again it should re-enforce your rigorous payment terms and of course include all of your terms of business

 

Your prospect should also complete and return an Account Information Form, to include all contact details of the buyer of your goods and services, the contact details for the accounts department etc. A new account should be created to include all contact details. On so many occasions an account is opened which does not contain all of the basic contact information. From the credit controllers view point, this is so annoying as it means that before they can make contact with your debtor they have to scratch around looking for basic information. If you are a medium or large company with 500 accounts to credit control, it is easy to see the time that could be wasted looking for information.!

 

The minute you have supplied your product or service an invoice should be raised. The invoice should contain all of the relevant information:

 

·   Address the invoice correctly (to include a full post code)

·   Send the invoice to the correct person – this may not necessarily be the buyer

·   Include a reference to the buyer of the goods or service

·   Quote any reference or purchase order number you have been given

 

·   Include a detailed narrative on the invoice that actually means something to the buyer of the goods or service (Purchase of 1 x HP56213 doesn’t mean anything, whereas; Purchase of 1 x HP LaserJet Printer in accordance with our agreement with Joe Bloggs does!)

 

·   Send invoices as soon as possible - not only is this necessary to establish the correct date for VAT purposes, but it also starts the credit-period clock ticking.

 

We haven’t spoken much about actual credit control yet have we? The point is: good credit control is not just about having a proper credit control chase process in place, it is making sure that the chain before credit control gets involved is watertight and working correctly so that when it comes to “actual credit control” your credit controller can make contact with your debtor with full confidence knowing that everything prior to their involvement is correct. Psychologically, this immediately gives your credit controller the upper hand.

 

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Jamieo"Making Your Cash Flow"

Credit Control Solutions in the Press..!

Please find below an excerpt from an article published about us in RSE Magazine - April 2009.

 “Making a profit is important but before you can pay the bills, you need cash in the bank. Simon Croft explains why good financial controls are more important than ever”

Credit control

The only solution I found to be effective and reliable was to use a credit control agency that would manage the process all the way down the line. However, I soon discovered that some of these agencies are astronomically expensive, so it was a relief when an accountant recommended I try Credit Control Solutions.

 

“We normally charge for our services on a ‘per account’ basis,” explains Credit Control Solutions founder Jamie O’Connell. “For larger companies with several hundred accounts, we would offer our services on a fixed-cost basis.” O’Connell estimates that this could equate to half the cost of employing an in-house credit controller but for small businesses, the news is perhaps even better. “For a customer with 20 accounts per month, using Sage Line 50 software, our typical charges would be £10.00 to £12.00 per account, per month. “We interface with our clients in a number of ways,” O’Connell explains. “In the main, we are able to set-up data export routines from most accounts software packages on the market and simply import this data into our own credit management software. In most cases, we can also establish a remote connection so that we are able to export their data ourselves,” O’Connell adds. “This means that we are completely self sufficient and do not have to rely on our customer to send any information to us.”

 

My biggest reservation before engaging CCS was that they would be aggressive to my customers. It turned out not to be a problem. “We appreciate that our success is purely down to the ‘good relationship’ that we

build with our customers’ customers’,”

 

O’Connell considers. “Collecting money is similar to the art of selling, if we fail to build a good relationship we will not succeed in improving collections and ultimately we will lose customers.” He claims that CCS has never lost a customer through the relationship going sour.

 

“We agree with our customer beforehand precisely what our approach will be, ie content of standard letters, timing of standard letters, whether or not we are to verify invoices for payment before they fall due for payment etc,” O’Connell adds. “All of this is enshrined within a credit control process and our staff will undertake credit control for that particular customer in strict accordance with that process. Adherence to the process is monitored by our credit control manager.”

 

In the case of the service CCS provided for my company, it was agreed that a letter be sent before money was due, reminding customers that our terms gave them 14 days to dispute any invoice. As a result, the incidence of disputed invoices declined dramatically and it simplified the situation when accounts fell overdue because it was then the payment that was in contention, not the service provided. However, there were still times when the client wouldn’t pay. O’Connell is at pains to explain that CCS doesn’t simply ‘take people to court’. “If a customer fails to pay without a valid reason, we will recommend to our customer that they allow us to take debt collection action,” he explains. “The important thing to mention here is this; although we may recommend debt collection action to our customer – eg county court proceedings – it is up to our customer to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to our recommendation.”

 

RSE – Simon Croft (Editor) – April 2009

 

 

Jamieo "Making Your Cash Flow"

When to Start Debt Collection?

Debt Recovery

The question is at what stage do you start debt recovery action? The answer to this question depends very much on how diligently you have credit controlled your debtor?

 

Everyone has an explicit right to expect to be paid on time. In reality however this is not always the case. We feel that on the whole most debtors should be treated the same, until they prove otherwise. i.e. assume they are not going to pay you and devise a credit control process around this assumption.

 

If you have very good credit control process in place, then by the time the debt is 60 days old, your debtor should have received 2 x statements of account and 3 x standard letters/emails and several telephone calls. On this basis, if your debtor has not paid you by 60 days, I would say it is time to instruct a debt collection agency (such as ourselves) to pursue your debtor for you.

 

If on the other hand, you do not have a good credit control process in place and merely just expect to be paid, or perhaps send out a statement here and there, referring your debtor to a debt collection agency to pursue at 60 days is probably not on. In effect you are penalising your debtor for your own ineffective credit control practices.! The solution to this problem is; make sure that you have a good credit control process in place to avoid your customer blaming you for the breakdown of the relationship.

 

We offer a full range of debt collection services and what’s more the way we charge for our debt collection services is unique within the debt collection industry and means that more of the money we collect goes in your coffers and not ours..!

 

We also have lots of testimonials on our website from satisfied customers for you to peruse so that you can satisfy yourselves that we are a professional outfit and will always collect monies from your debtors with a view to keeping the door open in terms of your relationship with them

 

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Jamieo "Making Your Cash Flow"

Enforcement: County Court Bailiffs-v-High Court Enforcement Officers

Who can best enforce your judgment?

 

If you have a debt of between £600 and £5,000 (including court costs), you will seek a county court judgment (CCJ) in the County Court. Once you have this, you then have a choice for enforcement between either the County Court Bailiff or the High Court Enforcement Officer (HCEO).

 

Debts below £600 can only be enforced by County Court Bailiffs. Judgments for debts of £5,000 and over can only be enforced by an HCEO.

 

In April 2004, the law was changed to allow debts between £600 and £5,000 to be transferred up to the High Court for enforcement. This change has given creditors a great deal more choice with so far as enforcement goes.

 

High Court Enforcement Offices (HCEO’s)

HCEO’s are authorised by the Lord Chancellor and work privately or in private companies.

 

HCEO’s work under the authority of a Writ of Fieri Facias (Fi Fa). This is issued when a County Court Judgment, Order or Tribunal Award is transferred to the High Court for enforcement via Form N293A and a court fee of £50.00. The transfer process normally takes between 5 and 21 days.

 

If successful, the HCEO will collect your judgment debt, your court costs, your £50 transfer up fee, interest at 8% and their fees, costs and charges from the defendant.

 

Benefits of Using an HCEO

 

·   HCEO's earn their fees from the judgment debtor, but only when they collect. If the HCEO is unable to collect, there is an industry regulated abortive fee of £60 plus VAT paid by the creditor for each address visited. Other than the abortive fee, the HCEO receives no income for an unsuccessful enforcement.

 

·   HCEO’s tend to have significantly higher collection rates than those of the County Court Bailiffs, who are salaried without any financial incentive to collect.

 

Unlike the County Court Bailiff, the HCEO does not have to give the judgment debtor any advance notice of their intention to collect, giving them the advantage of surprise. HCEO’s are also permitted to force entry into commercial premises to enforce, a power not permitted to County Court Bailiffs.

  

County Court Bailiffs

CCBs are salaried civil servants employed directly by the court service. They can enforce on judgments up to £5000. They work under the authority if a Warrant of Execution which can be requested from the County Court for a fee of £100.

 

Before they attempt to collect, the County Court Bailiff must write to the defendant advising them of their visit.

 

County Court Bailiffs will collect your judgement debt, your court costs, your warrant cost and interest (if prescribed) from the defendant. If unsuccessful, there is no abortive fee.

 

In summary

·   HCEO’s normally have far higher collection rates due to the financial incentive of fees only being paid on success

 

·   Only HCEO’s have the element of surprise, as they do not need to give a letter warning of an intended visit

 

·   Only HCEO’s can force entry to commercial premises and buildings detached from residential living quarters

 

·   Only County Court Bailiffs can enforce on judgments below £600 (at present)

 

·   The process of gaining a Warrant of Execution (CCB) is normally a little faster than that of transferring up and gaining a Writ of Execution /Fi Fa (HCEO)

 

·   A Warrant of Execution (CCB) costs £100

 

·   A Writ of Execution/Fi Fa (HCEO) costs £50

 

·   There is a £60 plus VAT abortive fee if enforcement is unsuccessful (HCEO)

The judgment debt, interest, court fees and enforcement costs are collected from the debtor through either route.

Credit Control Solutions can issue County Court proceedings on your behalf, visit our debt recovery pages on our website for further information.

Jamieo "Making Your Cash Flow"

 

What are your Thoughts on the Coalition Government?

What are your views on the current coalition government?

Do you think they will be more business friendly than Labour? Word has it that a cut in corporation tax is on the cards. They have also aired that they feel the way out of the recession is to give breaks to small businesses on the basis that if small businesses prosper, they will employ more people which in turn increases the governments tax take. Focusing on helping small businesses is a sensible idea (not only because I am a small business owner) due to the fact that collectively small business owners employ more people than all of the larger UK businesses put together..!

As a staunch conservative, my view is this; I think a Tory/Liberal coalition government is not only an historical event, I think it will work and probably be one of the most successful governments ever (When I look at this post in a few months or years, will I have egg on my face?). The Conservatives are normally quite "hard edged", but I reckon the Lib Dems will soften them down a little (Proof of this already exists in terms of compromises the Conservatives have made thus far)

What are your thoughts?

Jamieo - "Making Your Cash Flow"

Debt Management Companies: Do you Need help with Debt?

In the current economic climate, more and more people are finding themselves in debt and are turning to Debt Management Companies to help them out.

 

Typically, Debt Management Companies will ask you to complete an application from along with a questionnaire. Depending on your responses, they will suggest a Debt Management Plan that is suitable for you. The very good DMC's will have an "on-line" questionnaire which, once completed and dependant upon your answers will come up with a suggested solution to your problem there and then. More than likely an agent of the comnpany will then telephone you to talk things through with you.

 

In many cases the Debt Management Company (DMP) negotiates a reduction in payments with your creditors, this may include freezing interest on any of your borrowing. The benefits to you are:

 

·   Your monthly payments are reduced

 

·   If interest has been frozen, any payments you make actually reduce your debt by that amount (none of it goes towards interest)

 

·   Your creditors will not appoint debt collectors or take any recovery action against you whilst you maintain your payments

 

If your creditor does not agree to freeze interest, repaying your debt over a longer period of time might increase the overall amount you have to repay (due to interest).

Creditors are not obliged to agree to any changes in the contractual agreement, although many of them do and will. They will normally only accept reduced payments for a certain period of time, before reviewing the situation with either yourself or your DMC.

 

The important thing to remember here is, so long as you keep your creditors advised of any problems in making payments to them, they will as a general rule of thumb normally support and assist you.

 

By entering a debt management plan, you are effectively defaulting on your original agreement with your creditor. This will be noted on your credit file for a period of 6 years after the debt has been repaid. This will make it very difficult for you to obtain further credit and any credit that you do obtain will normally be more expensive due to the increased risk involved.

 

Any decent Debt Management Company will advise you of all of the options available to you. It may well be that a more formal solution will be applicable in your case, such as:

 

·   An Individual Voluntary Arrangement

 

·   Bankruptcy

 

How could you enter a debt management plan?

It is possible for you to negotiate a reduction in payments with your creditors yourself. However the amount of work involved will normally be quite considerable and your creditors are trained in dealing with approaches of this nature. Therefore, in my view it is far better to instruct a Debt Management Company

 

Jamieo "Making Your Cash Flow"

"No Collection, No Fee" Credit Control..!

That's right folks, so confident are we in our abilities to collect your money, we have just launched a "No Collection, No Fee" outsourced credit control service. This means, if you don't get paid, then nor do we. The success of my business depends very much on how successful we are at collecting your money for you. This could mean one of 2 things, either we will go bust, or we will be a raging success - my money is on the 2nd option..!

For further information on this service, please email me, or visit our website and enquire using our on-line enquiry from or, why not phone us?

Jamieo "Making Your Cash Flow" 

Has the Recession Affected your Business?

Please click the link below and express your opinion in my poll.

http://polls.linkedin.com/poll-results/49731/xztic

Jamieo "Making your Cash Flow"

Cash Flow is Critical!

The UK is experiencing a major increase in failures. Many companies are just walking away from their problems. 

When you lose £1,000 on a 10% profit margin you'll need to win and be paid for £10,000 of new business to just stand still!

But while you may be sitting on the fence, others are getting in more quickly to collect what little money may be available.

You can do something about it! Contact us through our website and we will react immediately to start the recovery process.

Jamieo "Making Your Cash Flow"

Credit Control Solutions in the Press!

Just had this article published about us by one of our customers, which also doubles as a testimonial!

Download RSE_FinancialPROOF

Jamieo "Making Your Cash Flow"

2nd earthquake hits Folkestone

Breaking News - An earthquake has shaken Folkestone in Kent.

The British Geological Survey said it recorded the earthquake at 1435 GMT in Folkestone.

A spokesman said it measured 2.8 on the Richter scale, compared with the quake in April 2007 which was 4.3.

I was in my top floor flat in Folkestone when the earthquake hit on this ocassion. Although it was only 2.8 on the Richter scale, the whole house swayed and the contents of my office rattled and shook! I have experienced an earthquake in Turkey before, although that was 5.9 on the richter scale and was very frighteneing indeed!

Resident Terri Julians said the earthquake "sounded like thunder and everything shook". She added: "It was quite scary but amazing."

Stewart Smith, who works in the east Kent town, said all the buildings shook for five seconds when the tremor hit.

He said offices in the area had been evacuated.

The epicentre of the 2007 quake was in the Channel, but this tremor was about three miles (5km) below Folkestone.

Julian Bukits, assistant seismologist with the British Geological Society, said there was an "event near Folkestone" at 1435 GMT, but that "it wasn't anything near as big as the one two years ago".

He said the fact that it was not recorded on monitors further away from Folkestone showed it was a very localised event.

"There are no reports of damage, but a lot of people will have felt it and remembered the last one," he added.

He said a preliminary report showed the tremor to be 2.8 on the Richter scale - a figure that may go slightly up or down.

Mr Bukits said: "On UK terms it's not that huge.

"To give a comparison of how often we have a 2.8, I think that occurs four or five times every year."

Mr Bukits said scientists were still analysing data from the event.

Kent Police said emergency services had received no reports of any structural damage or injuries, but were liaising with partner agencies to ensure officers provided help and support where needed.

Jamieo "Making The Earth Move for You"

"Article, courtesy of BBC Website"