Credit reporting

[loaders]

I am going to make an early New Year's resolution for 2011. Forget about dieting, quitting smoking and all the other usual promises. For next year I am going to make a habit to report to Dunn and Bradstreet, or Creditel, each and every slow/bad payer I come across. In fact, I am also going to report the good ones as well. Regardless of what you think about these services, they are only as good as the information that is supplied to them. If we all reported on a regular basis, the shippers or brokers that don't pay on time would receive the poor ratings that they deserve and as such, could be avoided. Conversely, the good paying shippers and brokers would be duly recognized as parties worth dealing with. Perhaps the outcome could be that the deadbeats would either improve their paying habits, or go out of business. At the very least, the information these services provide would be more complete and therefore more accurate. I encourage everyone to consider this resolution. Again, the more that report both good and bad payers, will benefit all of us.

 

[Jim L]

That's a great New Years Resolution and I think that I am behind you 100%. On top of that, I was thinking of actually sending statements and charge amounts for invoices over 30 days. I know that my vendors (those who don't demand at the time of service or ahead of time) would charge me interest - why wouldn't I? I have tried it before and sometimes you can't get it but if it changes someones mind to pay me before someone that doesn't charge interest, that would be great. It will also quantify and force me to make better decisions on those people that are always aquiring interest charges and asking me to write them off.

Back to Equifax and D&B, can you post the documents needed to send to D&B or Equifax? Of course one document with an aged report would be best for me but I don't think that it is as simple as that for D&B or Equifax.

 

[loaders]

We send a copy of our aged receivables to tradec@dnb.com, every month. In order for them to allocate the information to the correct company, it is very important that you include a complete address for each customer on your list. I would assume that the system for Equifax is similar. Again, I believe if we all took this step, the information the credit agencies offer would be much more accurate and up to date.