Free Commercial Debt Recovery and Debt Collection

If your business has delivered goods or services as ordered, you expect to be paid as agreed; in most cases, that will be within 30 days. If your invoices are not paid on time, whatever the agreed payment terms, and you ask for payment and are ignored or given excuses. You may be considering instructing a debt collection agency to help you get paid.

An online search will instantly provide you with a list of the UK’s most popular debt collection agencies and debt recovery solicitors.

Our Competitors’ Debt Collection Charges

Typically, a debt collection agency will charge a commission on any monies collected. This can range from 5% to 15% of the debt to be collected. Most reputable agencies offer a no-win, no-fee service. Some will require you to pay an instruction fee or annual subscription fee.

Always check if there are any hidden fees or charges.

Debt recovery solicitors will usually charge a relatively small fee to issue a Letter Before Action. In our opinion, this type of debt collection action is ineffective. The letters are tame and designed to be so. There is no money to be made by solicitors in charging £5.00 to send a Letter Before Action.

They will make their money when the letter does not result in payment and if you instruct them to issue expensive legal proceedings to recover payment of the debt.

Free Commercial Debt Recovery by Advocate

There is an alternative to instructing a traditional debt collection agency or debt recovery solicitor that is entirely free of cost to you, the creditor.

Advocate Commercial Debt Recovery are experts in enforcing The Late Payment of Commercial Debts Regulations. This commercial Late Payment Legislation provides creditors with a statutory entitlement to claim the costs involved in instructing a third party to collect payment of invoices that have not been paid on time.

When a creditor instructs us to recover payment of a debt, we claim the debt recovery costs on behalf of the creditor and add those costs to the total amount to be paid by the debtor in accordance with commercial Late Payment Legislation. Once we recover payment, the creditor will receive 100% of the invoice sums owed, and the debtor will have paid the debt recovery costs.

If your invoices have not been paid on time and the debtor is ignoring your attempts to collect payment or is making up excuses to delay payment, there will no doubt be other creditors who are receiving the same treatment. In most cases, this behaviour is simply because the debtor does not have enough money to pay all of its creditors. The debtor will be prioritising which creditors get paid first and usually. They will be the creditors who are the first to instruct a debt collection agency.

Advocate debt recovery is all about getting your invoices to the front of the queue for payment as quickly as possible. As soon as we contact your debtor, they will be in no doubt that you are serious and that you are no longer prepared to be ignored or listen to their excuses.

You can submit a debt recovery instruction in just a few minutes by completing our online instruction form.

It’s a simple, easy-to-navigate form that captures your contact details, the debtor’s contact details, and some basic details about the goods or services supplied. The form is expandable, so you can enter as much detail as you like if you want to tell us more about the background of the debt or how it occurred, what steps you have already taken to recover payment or any responses you have received from the debtor.

If the invoices are in dispute or an invoice query has previously been raised and satisfied, including the details in your instruction is essential.

Please include all of the debtor’s contact names, telephone numbers, and email addresses. The more people in the business who become aware of our action, the more effective it will be.

Once you have completed the instruction form, you will be prompted to upload a copy of the invoices before submitting it. That’s all we need to commence action. However, you can also upload any other documents that you think may be helpful. These can include contracts, delivery notes, purchase orders or copies of email correspondence with the debtor.

If we receive your instruction before 14.00 Monday to Friday, we will normally commence action the same day and send you confirmation by email. If you send your instruction after 14.00 or on the weekend, you will receive confirmation that we have commenced action the next working morning.

Once you have instructed us, there is nothing more you need to do. Don’t be surprised if the first time your case manager updates you it is to advise that we have recovered payment and transferred the funds to your bank account.

Feel free to call us on 0117 403 1785 before submitting your instruction. We are always available and happy to speak with new and existing clients to discuss specific cases and decide on the best course of action or answer any questions you may have.

Chasing for payment of invoices that have not been paid on time can be stressful and frustrating. It also takes up time that could be better spent on growing your business. Sometimes, late payment can become a serious issue if a business cannot pay its suppliers on time.

The excellent working relationships you have built with your suppliers could become strained because you have not been paid on time and cannot pay them. Every week, businesses in the UK that are unable to pay their overheads and suppliers are forced to close while being owed money by debtors who would have cleared their debts.

One reason late payment has become such a problem is the reluctance of many businesses to use a debt collection agency. This is understandable, considering the poor reputation of some debt collection firms and the methods they employ.

Advocate offers its clients an alternative: a free debt collection service backed by Government legislation that enforces their legal right to be paid on time for the work they do.

The clients we work on behalf of and represent benefit from:

• Not having to chase debtors for payment and enduring the stress that creates
• Not having to listen to any more frustrating excuses from debtors
• Advocate educating their debtors on late payment legislation and why they must pay on time in future
• Receiving 100% of the invoice sums they are owed without any fees or charges
• A positive impact on their cash flow and profitability