Free Commercial Debt Recovery and Debt Collection Agency

Your business receives 100% of the money it is owed. Your debtor pays our fee under Late Payment Legislation. 

Free Debt Collection Agency

  • Advocate’s commercial debt collection service is entirely free of charge to the creditor.
  • You will not be asked to pay any charges, commission or fees.
  • Your debtor pays our fee.

Fast Payment of Overdue Invoices

  • Many of the invoices we are instructed to collect payment of are paid immediately; over 50% are paid within 7 days, and over 80% are paid within 14 days.
  • You will receive 100% of the invoice sums you are owed, whether it takes us 1 day or 14 days to recover payment of your debt.

Simple Instruction Process

  • All we need to get started on recovering payment of your unpaid invoices is a completed instruction form and copies of the invoices.
  • You can instruct us in just a few minutes by completing our online debt collection instruction form.

The Debt Collection Agency You Can Trust

  • Advocate Commercial Debt Recovery has been collecting payment of unpaid invoices for over ten years.
  • Our team has combined industry experience of over sixty years.
  • We have over 500 independent 5-star client reviews.

How Does Free Debt Recovery Work?

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 recovery 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 Recovery 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 recovered. Most reputable agencies offer a no-win, no-fee service. Some will require you to pay an instruction fee or an annual subscription fee.

Always check for any hidden fees or charges.

Debt recovery solicitors 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 when you instruct them to initiate expensive legal proceedings to recover the debt.

Free Commercial Debt Collection 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 recover the costs incurred in instructing a third party to collect unpaid invoices.

When a creditor instructs us to collect payment of a debt, we claim the costs on the creditor’s behalf and add them to the total amount payable by the debtor in accordance with commercial Late Payment Legislation. Once we recover payment, the creditor will receive 100% of the invoice sum owed, and the debtor will have paid the debt collection costs.

If your invoices have not been paid on time and the debtor is ignoring your attempts to collect payment or making excuses to delay payment, there will, no doubt, be other creditors 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 usually prioritise which creditors get paid first. They will be the creditors who first instruct a debt collection agency.

Advocate’s debt collection process 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.

Is Free Debt Collection Effective

The Government introduced commercial Late Payment Legislation to combat the problem of late payment and the pressures it places on businesses. It is a UK law enforced by His Majesty’s Courts. If applied correctly, the legislation can be a powerful debt recovery tool.

You might think that adding debt collection charges to an already overdue debt would make it more difficult to recover payment. In fact, by demonstrating to the debtor that failing to pay on time constitutes a breach of statutory legislation enforceable in Court, the debtor’s situation is immediately escalated.

Advocate Commer Dedt Recovery create a sense of seriousness and urgency that the debtor cannot ignore. As soon as you instruct us to recover your debt, you can rest assured knowing that we, UK law, and the Courts are on your side.

Our debt recovery process is designed to elicit a response from even the most unresponsive debtor. We are equipped to deal with even the most sophisticated or fervent excuses for non-payment, and our determination and persistence in educating the debtor about the severe consequences of legal proceedings result in payment in over 80% of the debt collection instructions we undertake.

Experience, knowledge, professionalism, the latest debt recovery software and access to real-time financial intelligence data, combined with expert enforcement of commercial Late Payment Legislation, ensure that our clients receive the UK’s most effective commercial debt recovery service.

Advocate, Debt Recovery You Can Trust

Instructing Advocate to recover payment of unpaid invoices is entirely cost-free to the creditor and therefore risk-free. In the unlikely event that we cannot recover payment of the debt, the work we have carried out will be free of charge. We only receive payment when we successfully recover payment of the invoices and the debt collection costs.

Whether or not we are successful in recovering payment of your debt, we will never ask you to pay any charges, fees or commissions. Here you will find our Terms and Conditions of Business. You will see that this is a simple, concise document written in plain English and that there are no hidden charges or fees.

Our firm was established over ten years ago by partners with over 20 years of experience in commercial debt recovery, and our team boasts combined industry experience of over 60 years.

We are proud to have received over 500 five-star independently submitted client reviews on Google and Feefo.

We recommend you conduct your own research into Advocate Commercial Debt Recovery and our debt collection competitors.

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Don’t just take our word for it. Read our independently submitted reviews and hear what our clients say about our free debt collection agency and the results we achieve.

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Debt Collection Instructions We Accept

We accept instructions from any business that has issued commercial invoices to another business for the supply of goods or services that have not been paid within the agreed payment terms. If there is no written agreement on payment terms, current legislation states that invoices become due for payment 30 days following the issue date.

Advocate’s free debt recovery service is available to businesses of all sizes, from sole traders to large corporations with national operations and everything in between. Our service is available to businesses registered in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

We can help any type of business in any industry, with dedicated debt collection case managers specialising in the Construction, Engineering, Food and Drink, IT and Digital, Manufacturing, Marketing, Recruitment, and Transport sectors.

Whatever the size of your business and whatever it does, if your invoices have not been paid on time, commercial Late Payment Legislation applies, and Advocate can recover the debt at no cost to your business.

Please note:

The minimum debt value we can accept is £750.00. If the debt you seek to recover is below £750.00, moneyclaim.gov.uk could be an option for you.

There is no upper limit to the debt value we can accept. However, if the debt exceeds £50,000.00, we recommend that you contact us on 0117 403 1785 before submitting your instruction. We can then ensure we have the required background information and discuss the best course of action with you.

If the invoice was issued within the last 30 days, and there is no written agreement on payment terms. Please wait 30 days from the invoice issue date before instructing us.

Debt Collection Instructions We Cannot Accept

Where the debtor company is in Liquidation. Once a company enters Liquidation, it is too late for us to take action against it. Check if a company is being liquidated.

When the debtor company has entered Administration. Administration prevents us from taking action against the company. What does entering Administration mean.

If you have already issued Court proceedings against the debtor and obtained a Judgment. The matter is beyond the point where we could become involved. You should instruct a firm of Bailiffs to enforce the Judgment.

Advocate Commercial Debt Recovery conducts debt collection under Commercial Late Payment Legislation, which applies to invoices issued for the supply of goods or services. This is business-to-business debt collection.

We do not accept instructions from creditors registered outside the UK or against debtors registered outside the UK. Both the creditor and the debtor must be registered in the UK for the Commercial Late Payment Legislation we work under to apply.

We cannot accept instructions involving contractual matters or disputes, commercial loans, commercial rent, investments, refunds for goods or services not received, or any other commercial situation in which you have not issued an invoice. In these circumstances, we recommend you seek legal advice from a Solicitor.

We do not accept instructions from or against private individuals. That includes matters where a business has supplied a consumer. Debt collection agencies that specialise in consumer debt collection can be found by searching for consumer or private debt collection.

We cannot accept instructions relating to residential property debts, including rent debt recovery. If you search for landlord or rent debt recovery, you will find firms that can assist you.

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You can instruct on online in just a few minutes!
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If you have a question? Contact us now for the answer!

How Do You Instruct Us

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 the form. 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 provided us with instructions, there is nothing more you need to do. Don’t be surprised if the first time your case manager updates you is to let you know that we have collected payment and transferred the funds to your bank account.

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

What Happens Once You Have Instructed Us

First, we must conduct due diligence to establish that a legally enforceable debt exists and is recoverable. If the debt is not recoverable, we will not waste your time or ours. We will advise you on why the debt is not recoverable and if any other options are available to you.

If, as in most cases, we can recover the debt, you will receive a confirmation email from your dedicated case manager, who will include their contact details and your case reference number. They will also outline how and when we will contact the debtor, as described below.

On day one of the debt recovery process, we will issue a pre-action protocol-compliant Notice by first-class post. We will send a copy of the Notice to each address we hold for the debtor if the registered address is different from the trading address.

On day two, the Notice and supporting documents will be sent by email, timed to arrive at the same time as the postal copy to every email address we hold for the debtor.

The debtor will now be fully aware of the seriousness of the consequences of continuing to withhold payment. They will realise that they can no longer ignore the debt and that any excuses designed to delay or evade payment would be futile.

On day three of the debt collection process, your case manager will contact the debtor by telephone. They are trained, experienced and professional. By the end of the conversation, any excuses offered will have been quashed, and the debtor will have no doubt that their only option is to pay.

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Recent Debt Recoveries

Ironic Debt Recovery of £26K

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How We Will Keep You Updated

Many debtors pay as soon as we contact them and in as little as 24 hours. Some debtors will deliberately wait until the last day of the debt colection process before making payment.

We do not operate a client portal, which is unnecessary. Our debt recovery process does not take months. It takes a maximum of 14 days. Unlike some debt collection agencies, we will not ask you to create an account and log in for an update only to discover that no progress has been made.

As soon as the debtor responds to our Notice or emails or we speak with them by telephone, we will update you using your preferred method, phone or email. We will continue to update you as progress is made until the debt has been paid. You will always be aware of the current status of our action.

Don’t worry if you haven’t heard from us for a few days. We will be working on your case; it just means we have not yet received a response from the debtor. You can still request an update from your case manager at any time using the contact details provided in their confirmation email.

If the Debtor Contacts You

The Notices we issue to debtors include debt recovery costs. These additional charges enable us to provide creditors with a debt recovery service at no cost. Once we recover payment, you will receive 100% of the invoice amount you are owed, and Advocate will retain the additional debt recovery costs as our fee.

Some debtors will contact the creditor directly upon receiving our correspondence. There are two reasons why they do this. Usually, it is in the hope that they can pay the creditor directly and evade payment of the debt recovery costs, or to delay further or avoid payment with an excuse for non-payment.

If the debtor contacts you for any reason, please advise them that the matter is now out of your hands, that Advocate Commercial Debt Recovery is handling it, and that they should contact us immediately.

If you enter into dialogue with the debtor, it will dilute the debt collection action taken by Advocate, which has resulted in the debtor’s response. It may afford them a further opportunity to delay or evade payment.

If the debtor contacts you by telephone, please call or email your case manager to update them. They will then contact the debtor and again make it clear that the matter has been transferred to Advocate, and they must co-operate with us.

If the debtor contacts you by email, please forward it to your case manager, and they will respond to the debtor.

When We Collect Payment

We receive instant notification when a payment credits our client bank account. Payments received are immediately transferred to the client via a same-day faster payment. Banks advise that a faster payment may take up to 2 hours to be credited to the recipient’s account. In reality, the payment will usually be credited within minutes.

We notify the client as soon as a payment is processed, typically within 30 minutes of receiving the payment from the debtor.

Unless otherwise instructed, we will use the bank account details printed on your invoices. If your invoices do not display bank account details, you can enter them on the instruction form.

If the Debtor Pays You Directly

Upon receiving our correspondence, some debtors will immediately, without contacting the creditor, pay only the invoice amounts directly to the creditor in an attempt to evade payment of the debt recovery costs.

In these circumstances, all we ask is that you notify us that you have received payment. We will then pursue the debtor until they have paid the debt collection costs.

If We Cannot Recover Payment

In the few cases where we cannot recover payment, it will be because the debtor cannot pay, does not want to pay, or disputes the debt, believing they should not have to pay.

Cannot Pay

The debtor does not have the money to pay, as their business has failed and will eventually fold.

If, based on the information gathered during the debt recovery process, it is clear that legal action would not result in payment, we would recommend that the debt be written off for tax purposes and that tax relief be claimed on the loss.

We would never recommend a client incur costs by taking legal action when there is no prospect of the action resulting in payment.

If the debt is unrecoverable, we will close our file, and the debt collection work we have carried out will be free of charge to the client. They will at least have the consolation that it has not cost them any money to try to recover the debt.

Does Not Want to Pay

There are a small number of cases where the debtor simply does not want to pay and refuses to do so. It could be that the debtor has calculated that the creditor will not take legal action to recover payment of the debt.

Our clients are not obliged to issue court proceedings. However, if there is a reasonable prospect that the proceedings will lead to payment, we will provide the client with details of the process and the costs involved in taking the action. The client would then decide whether they wish to file a claim in Court against the debtor.

Claims are issued by our partner solicitors, Askews Legal, who specialise in debt recovery claims.

Disputed

In cases where the debtor has demonstrated that a genuine dispute exists and believes they should not have to pay, we recommend that the client consider arbitration or mediation before issuing Court proceedings.

With arbitration, both parties agree to be bound by the arbitrator’s decision. You can find an arbitrator here.

With mediation, the mediator assists both parties in reaching an amicable settlement. You can find a mediator here.

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Debt Recovery Case Studies

£75k Debt Recovered within 1 Week

Advocate Commercial Debt Recovery has successfully recovered £75k from a construction firm less than a week after being instructed. Our…

Private School Debt Recovery

Debt Ignored By the client’s own admission, prioritising the debt on a regular basis had taken a back seat because…

Research and Development Debt Recovery

Advocate Commercial Debt Recovery has successfully recovered £2.5k of commission from a Wiltshire-based heat pump installer at no cost to…

Advocate Commercial Debt Recovery

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 are unable to 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 Commercial Debt Recovery offers its clients an alternative: a free debt recovery 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
What the clients we represent and work on behalf of can expect from us:
  • An entirely cost-free debt collection service
  • A professional, ethical solution to the late payment of invoices
  • A dedicated case manager with experience and knowledge of the industry they work in
  • Real-time personal updates by their dedicated case manager
  • We commence action on the same day we receive your instruction
  • We pay you the same day your debtor pays us
  • We only get paid when we get you paid

We are backed by Government legislation and the County Court system. We believe the debt recovery service we provide is more effective, not only in terms of cost-effectiveness but also in terms of the results we achieve, than any other debt collection agency in the UK.

Read our client reviews, and if you are still not sure, call us. One of our friendly, experienced team members will be happy to take your call, answer any questions you may have, and talk you through our free-of-cost service to the creditor.

Watch our Free Debt Recovery Video

 

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