Debt Collection

Re: Debt Collection

Sarah Cahill — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:55:55 GMT

We have recently changed the collecting company we use and have had a much better response - we were with TNC for 10 years and to start with they were fab but for the past 3 or so years that I have been back with this practice they haven't produced any results.

We are now using CPA which is all done online and can be updated at any time by practice members and have had a lot more debts paid!

As a rule we send out 1st account, 2nd account then with their 3rd account we send a covering letter and if no response then we send the a/c to bad debts! It's amazing the excuses some people come up with!

Re: Debt Collection

Emma Purnell — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:39:36 GMT

Just be careful, was talking with someone at work and you need some legal requirement in order to add on any money to outstanding debts. Don't know much more than that though! Pretty useless all round!

Re: Debt Collection

Vicky RVN — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:12:54 GMT

Haha incentive is always good!

Re: Debt Collection

Sal the 1st — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:33:57 GMT

forgot to mention my incentive in all of this - I used to get a little extra in my pay packet for anything I recovered off the bad debts , you learn to get very good at this very quickly

Re: Debt Collection

Vicky RVN — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:23:55 GMT

[quote user="sal the 1st"]I can remember once going round the carpark at one of the agricultural shows and leaving invoices for some of our harder to find clients under the wiper on their vehicles[/quote]

That's very cunning, good idea!

Re: Debt Collection

Sal the 1st — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:17:52 GMT

suppose you have already tried withholding your phone number when you ring - surprising how many clients arent in when they have caller display on their phone and yet when you ring back within a minute on witheld number they pick up

I can remember once going round the carpark at one of the agricultural shows and leaving invoices for some of our harder to find clients under the wiper on their vehicles - it worked surprisingly well

Re: Debt Collection

Catherine O — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:04:43 GMT

Thanks everyone! We already have surcharges, and do give a 10% discount on herd testing payment recieved within a month of the test, but i'll definately suggest maybe a 5% discount being applied for rapid payment on whole accounts. Some LA clients really do take the biscuit - i've spent all day on the phone tracing down bad debtors, in a bid to clean up the books, we're offering a "surcharge amnesty" on accounts cleared within seven days of my phone call, it'll save some clients hundreds of euros in late payment fees - now if only i could get them to take my calls! lol, i think at this rate i'm gonna have to arm myself with a whipping pipe and start making house visits!

Re: Debt Collection

Sal the 1st — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:32:05 GMT

going back a bit as not been in LA for a while - we used to set up an agreed level on each farmers account when they first registered with us (we were about 30% large animal at that time but LA debts accounted for almost 95% of our total debtors).

The farmers knew that if they reached that limit they wouldnt get anything else or be able to book routine non emergency visits until they started to bring the amount down (except for true emergency cases). Later on we introduced a policy whereby we wouldnt order anything in for an outstanding account holder unless there had been some payment activity within the last month (nothing less than a payment of 10% of the outstanding debt ). We had to do this because some of the farmers were registering at other practices once they had reached their limit - and incidentally not paying there either. We had always tried to check we were not taking on a client with an outstanding debt at another practice to try and be fair to the other practice (and also so we didnt take on bad payers) but it seems others were not so careful.

Incentives to pay? - 5% discount applied to any account settled in full within the month.

we used to charge a fiver for a second month overdue reminder. 3 months usually resulted in small claims court unless the case was exceptional and I think the fee for that at the time was bout 30 pounds depending on the amount owed. If a debt went to small claims it resulted in 50 pounds added to the bill (small claims fee and associated paperwork and time) the discount of 5% did not apply to accounts settled in full after a small claims settlement ( but there were farmers cheeky enough to ask!).

I found LA clients notoriously bad for paying debts - it is possible to make headway with this, but it does require quite a bit of ingenuity

Re: Debt Collection

Vicky RVN — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:38:27 GMT

Adding a surcharge is a very good idea, i would have thought it would make people more likely to pay then!

Re: Debt Collection

Mac Feather — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:33:37 GMT

One place I worked would add a surcharge for every month the bill remained unpaid for a few months and offski to the debt collectors!

Re: Debt Collection

Kerry Spain — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:30:49 GMT

Hiya, sorry we're small animal only but I usually send out 3 reminders (1 per month for 3 months) then if no response I sack em' off to the debt collectors!