Options at your disposal – SurgeDigital
When a customer defaults on a debt, it can be a difficult decision when choosing between collecting the debt themselves, enlisting the help of a commercial debt collection agency or taking the legal option.
This latter route, despite appearing to be the most forceful, doesn’t always turn out to be the most successful however, with expensive court fees often undoing much of the work a County Court Judgment can do. Moreover, even when a CCJ is awarded, the customer’s financial circumstances will dictate the repayment plan and brings no guarantee that payment will ensue.
This was the case for a client of ours, SurgeDigital, who opted to get a CCJ lodged against a customer that owed the business more than £8,000. But after the court discovered the director of that business was in dire straits financially, it ordered the customer to pay £1 per week until it was paid off.
Even this arrangement wasn’t fulfilled however, prompting Director, Chris Wells, to all but write the debt off. Three years later, however, he decided to give it one last shot by instructing Hilton-Baird Collection Services to recover the debt on a success-only basis.
Upon instruction, our team therefore began the process of performing background checks on the customer to ascertain his ability to pay – an essential part of any debt recovery process. These checks found the director to be a shareholder of another company, which had recently been sold for £3 million.
Armed with this information, it was only a matter of time before the customer paid up.
Mr Wells said: “I cannot speak highly enough of Nicky and her team at Hilton-Baird Collection Services after they collected a three-year-old debt on my behalf. We’re web design and marketing consultants, not debt collectors, but we felt that we had explored what we thought was every avenue possible – even having a CCJ awarded to no avail.
“I couldn’t believe they were able to recover such a high figure just four weeks after instruction. They kept me informed throughout the process, were transparent in their approach and were thoroughly successful.”
