Operated by Porcupine Credit Corporation
(2001) Ltd.
Serving
Visit us on-line at www.cbsudbury.com !
Collection Department FAQs:
3-What information do I need to submit an account for collection?
4-When should I list my accounts?
5-What will the Credit Bureau of Sudbury do once they get my
account?
7-What happens if my debtor(s) pay me directly after I list the
account with the Credit Bureau?
8-How do I get a progress report on my account(s)?
9-How does the Credit Bureau of Sudbury disperse collected funds?
11-Are there any low-cost tools available to assist my Accounts
Receivable duties?
There are several ways to
list your accounts with the Credit Bureau of Sudbury. The preferred method is to list
electronically. Some of the benefits of
listing accounts electronically are that operator error is minimized, accounts
reach our professional collectors faster (which means better results!), and
there is a minimal amount of paperwork to track.
We have 2 online listing
tools, an Adobe Reader based listing form, and a web browser based listing form
(visit www.cbsudbury.com to list
online). The offline electronic listing
options are a specialized electronic acceptance routine (special conditions
apply), and an easy to use
Excel Spreadsheet listing form that can be emailed to our office for
submission.
Your accounts can also be
submitted to the Credit Bureau of Sudbury in writing on our pre-printed listing
sheets which are supplied free of charge.
The first step in listing your
accounts is to speak to one of our customer service representatives to discuss
the option that is best suited to your needs.
2-Is there a sign-up fee?
There is a one-time membership
fee of $75.00 + GST (total $80.25) which enables you to list as many accounts
as you wish (both retail and commercial).
3-What
information do I need to submit an account for collection?
Please supply all identifying
information available: full name, address, employment(s), date of birth, social
insurance number, date of service, telephone numbers, etc. The more information you provide, the better
the opportunity to collect your money promptly and efficiently.
Statements and/or invoices
from you to your retail debtor(s) should be supplied to the Credit Bureau of
Sudbury on request only. If you have any NSF cheques
written to you by your debtor(s), please forward them to our office as soon as
possible. If you are listing
commercial accounts, please include copies of available invoices/statements for
our records.
Please be sure that your
name, address, telephone number, and client number (if available) are supplied
on all electronic or written listings and communications.
4-When
should I list my accounts?
List
early for best results! Below is a scale
from a survey by the National Retail Credit Institute's Research Department as
to how accounts deteriorate in value according to age:
And
so on ……. So why let them deteriorate beyond three to six months?
5-What will the Credit Bureau of
Each
account requires special handling based on the nature of the debt and the
nature of the debtor. Standard
procedures are to report the debt on the debtor’s credit report (subject to
Equifax guidelines) and to contact the debtor in writing and verbally to secure
repayment arrangements.
Credit
counselling is handled by our well-trained staff. We
can distinguish between debtors who need legal action as a motivator (no
commission is charged on disbursed court costs) and debtors who need counselling or budgeting advice. We have the skills and
tools at our disposal to recover your bad debts.
6-What is the criteria that
the Credit Bureau of
We
do not take legal action lightly! This
is a very extreme step that we wish to avoid if possible. Unfortunately, it is often a necessary step
to recover a bad debt. We will only
request “Permission to Sue” under the following general conditions:
A- the
debt is of such a significant amount that the risk of incurring court costs is
offset by the chances of full recovery (again, no commission is charged on
disbursed court costs),
B-the debtor has made it
clear that he/she disputes the amount and/or will not make a satisfactory
repayment arrangement,
C-the collector is
reasonably confident that, upon receipt of judgment, we will be able to enforce
the judgment through garnishment or writ of seizure and sale.
When
the collector determines that legal action should be taken, he/she will request
“Permission to Sue” from you. We require
a signature and an itemized statement (showing the interest rate to be charged)
to attach to the Plaintiff’s Claim. In
many cases, there will be no further action required by you. In some, however, a dispute may be
filed. In such an instance, a person
with “First-Hand” knowledge must appear at a pretrial hearing. A representative from our office may
accompany that person if requested. If
the case goes as far as reaching a Trial, the creditor must represent him or
herself in front of the judge. It is
very rare for a case to reach the Trial stage.
As
you can see, we will recommend legal action only on those accounts worthy of
such a step. For this reason, where a
claim cannot be supported sufficiently to obtain a judgment (meaning the judge
dismisses the case or the client refuses to proceed with legal action), then
the Credit Bureau may charge a closing fee to compensate for the work and
expense involved up to that point, said fee not to exceed 10% of the balance
submitted for collection.
Under
the regulations of “The Collection Agencies Act”, we cannot advance costs on
your behalf – they are payable by you, added to the claim, and returned to you,
commission free, from the first monies recovered on that particular
account. We seldom know exactly what the
costs will total, so we may invoice you for these costs as we pay them, or
contra them from other funds owing to you.
The Credit Bureau of Sudbury may request an advance of estimated costs
when a dispute is anticipated, costs are expected to be high in relation to the
balance of the account, or district court action is required.
7-What happens if my debtor(s) pay me directly after I
list the account with the Credit Bureau?
Please
advise us immediately by phone! For
credit reporting and account handling purposes, it is very important that we
process all transactions as quickly as possible. There may be charges (ie.
legal fees) that are outstanding that you may not be aware of, therefore it is
very important that you do not issue a receipt for “Payment in Full”. Receipts should only state “On Account”,
unless a Credit Bureau representative has informed you otherwise. Commission is owing to the bureau on all
accounts paid, whether they are paid to you or to us. We attempt to have all payments remitted to
us to avoid confusion.
We
request that you do not make arrangements with your customer – you are paying
us to collect for you and you may be accepting arrangements refused by us for
valid reasons. Your customer will resent
and resist further contact from us after dealing with you. In addition to this our terms and conditions
state that “in the event that the client makes any direct arrangements with the
debtor or intervenes in any other manner to prevent further collection action
by the Credit Bureau, then there shall immediately become due and payable to
the Credit Bureau, an amount equal to the charges that would have been payable
had the Credit Bureau successfully collected the whole amount of the
debt”. As you can see, it is very
important to minimize contact with your debtor after you have listed his/her
account with the Credit Bureau of Sudbury.
8-How do
I get a progress report on my account(s)?
We are simply a call
away! Please feel free to contact one of
our customer service representatives if you have any questions or concerns
about the accounts that have been placed with us. If you require a report on the progress of
multiple accounts, or need the report in written or electronic form, we will
provide you with a “Client Inventory Report” either on paper or on disk (can be
emailed). There is no charge for up to
two (2) Client Inventory Reports per year.
Additional reports will be provided for a nominal handling fee ($25.00 +
GST).
9-How
does the Credit Bureau of
Under “The Collection
Agencies Act”, we must disburse by the 20th of the following month,
all funds due to our clients in excess of $15.00 net. For example, funds recovered in March, plus
court costs recovered (commission free), less commission owing and court costs
charged, which result in a net cheque to you in
excess of $15, are remitted to you by April 20th at the latest. If payments made to you, or court costs
incurred result in a debit, you will be invoiced. Cheques and
remittances are generally run in the first week of each month and will include
all transactions posted in the previous month.
10-Where
do I find the Credit Bureau of
The regular commission rates
and terms and conditions are printed on the back of the Credit Bureau of
Sudbury listing sheet. They are also
available on the internet at www.cbsudbury.com.
Our listing sheet is our
contract in most instances. If you
choose to list electronically, depending on the method you use, you will either
have to sign a separate contract or the computer will force you to accept the
terms and conditions before allowing you to submit an account for collection.
11-Are
there any low-cost tools available to assist my Accounts Receivable duties?
There are several low-cost
tools made available by the Credit Bureau of Sudbury to aid creditors in
managing their Accounts Receivable.
A.R.M. & Pre-Collection
systems are available to help you recover delinquent accounts (at low or no
commission rates) when you want to give your customer one more chance before
taking immediate collection action.
PPSA REGISTRATION AND SEARCHES FROM YOUR OWN OFFICE ! Now you can
register and search PPSA chattels via your fax machine or computer. You
need to secure your assets – quickly and accurately. You want to be ranked first in priority
sequence when you register your security.
You can register against any property that is being used as collateral,
and you can do a search to see if anyone else has registered against the same
collateral before you. Be aware of how
secure your security is! Simply call the
Credit Bureau of Sudbury to get you set up with this valuable service.
Free Final Demand service is
an effective method of collecting past due commercial accounts over $500 free
of cost, which increases your cash flow.
The Credit Information
Bulletin is published approximately nine (9) times per year, and includes
bankruptcies, notices to creditors and non-responsible notices for your local
area. The cost of this Bulletin is
$45.00 plus G.S.T. per year (total cost $48.15).
We are: “
The People People Pay ”
Living and working in
Our computerized collection
system is one of the most modern, up-to-date systems available, and it was
developed by our own programmers! Using
our years of collection expertise, we diversified our business in the 80’s by
opening Porcupine Computers. This
company is responsible for writing and supporting a collection system used by
40 + offices across
We collect more money, for
more clients than any other agency serving
“WE
CAN COLLECT FOR YOU!”