Has anyone used a debt collection agency? Do they do the job or a waste of money.

[contentiouscat]

We have a couple of outstanding invoices and basically the clients have no intention of paying.

I cant use any one off services because the clients are private clients rather than businesses but I have been approached by 3 companies where you pay an annual fee eg £200 they pay us the outstanding amount and take over the debt. The client is then asked to pay by them, if they dont they are offered a loan by the company and if they still refuse they will claim against the debtors assets e.g. property.

Does anyone have any experience of using this service, is it a scam or worth doing?

Companies I have been approached by are Daniels Silverstein, Source Locate & Collect & CDI Credit Management.

No no no - I wouldn't, not a scam as such but you end up worse off in the long run, unless this is something which happens to you a lot.

Dependant on the figure owed to you:
Fill in a 'small claims' court form (available from the internet. Send with a red letter (solicitors letter even better) explaining that if you don't receive full and final settlement by x date then this form will be submitted to the courts - it usually works.

No I dont find it does tbh, all small claims court does is say "naughty boy, pay the money" then unless you spend MORE money they still dont get the money on your behalf...both clients are frequent offenders I think.

One amount is about £600 and the other £400, I would therefore need to start 2 small claims proceedings, the case is heard at the debtors local court rather than ours and as neither is local that means DH loses two more days pay whilst in court.

It is retrospective so they will claim back for 6 years of debts.

TBH I just wrote these off but every time I get called by one of these companies it just rubs salt in the wound and makes me angry again.

I know some large companies use a service like this I just wondered if these companies are genuine.

The chap who owes us £600 doesnt work and has said "oh I will only have to pay you about 20p a week if you take me to court" he DOES have a lot of assets though.

It would be cheaper to ask your solicitor to write a letter threatening small claims and IME more effective, they are quite small debts so a big company will not usually want the hassle and pay up.

I'm not suggesting you take them to small claims, but filling the gorm and sending it with a professional threatening letter has worked for me many times.

Going and sitting in reception is also a good trick, asking for an explanation for non-payment and refusing to leave until you see the person responsible - but I would only do that for a lot of money!

If they are trading companies then why is he not working?

No as I said they are "private clients" rather than companies. There is loads of legislations to protect you from non payment by a company but if you go into someones house and do some work those laws do not apply.

Send some heavies in then? It's a difficult one. You can try the debt companies but they only go down the same route essentially. Would you not consider a solicitors letter? He might well be saying one thing to you but it's amazing how little bravado people actually have when threatened by a legal entity!

Sorry for not getting whole pic - trying to do accounts while talking to you so not concentrating properly!

ohh bad english there LOL

I wouldnt be adverse to standing in a reception area and making a fuss unfortunately not an option here - he doesnt get on with his neigbours so doesnt care what they think of him.

They both had the threatening letters -unfortunately didnt work.

Thanks Wisteria - I just didnt really want to throw good money after bad if you know what I mean. We have a really good success rate with payment of our invoices its just these two chancers really

I just like to check companies out before dealing with them and I can see this could potentially be a scam.

Read the small print if you do decide to go down that route, sure you would anyway but the few I have dealt with in the past are still very dependent on you doing a lot of the legwork and take a hefty percentage of the debt.
Some money is better than none though isn't it. You could try telling the offending parties that you are going to have to take it to a debt collection agency as you have a cashflow problem and need the money. Offer him a payment plan if you like but I would exhaust every possibility first, what did you do for them?