Grand Financial
- Thread starter Cher
- Start date
10
Coincidence in timing. I just received a call from a man that works with Grand Financial today. He was very rude and aggressive. I did not catch his name but he had an accent. I just received an invoice 9 days ago from them and this guy was demanding payment immediately. They didn't even send me any assignment letter or anything. They'll get paid in 30 days and not a minute before.
30
Hey Wiseowl, does Stallion Trucking use Grand Financial as a factoring company, or was this just placed in the wrong thread?
Oh, and sorry, but I have not heard of Stallion Trucking. They do not appear to be listed on SaferSys so I would guess they are not a carrier but probably just a broker.
Does anyone have more experiences like this? This is the first time I've heard anything like this.
30
If you have a phone, computer, and a brain you can do your own A/R and collection calls. You do not need a factoring company for that.
Indeed the factoring companies call the payer to check payment status, sometimes to the point of hounding. Then there are the letters they mail and the faxes they send to remind you to pay. Oh, and they report on your credit as if you were late paying, when in reality they take so long to send the invoice that it is often overdue when you receive it. These actions border on harassment and are annoying to say the least. It just adds another layer of thickness to what we have to do.
Many companies who broker will refuse to give loads to carriers using factoring companies because of the hassle and because the use of a factoring company sometimes indicates that a business is not doing well financially. After all, if a company is borrowing against it's receivables, do they really have the funds to cover their insurance, payroll, vehicle maintenance, fuel, etc...
Just my opinion...
Rant over...
30
I agree, although I wouldn't turn away a carrier for factoring. My main issue with factoring companies is that they almost never report days 2 pay accurately. And sometimes they're way off, and they have no qualms whatsoever about reporting incorrect information. Several years ago my loads started to dry up for no apparent reason.. carriers would call to book loads and then cancel shortly thereafter. After about a month of that one carrier called and told me that my credit was too bad for them to consider me. I asked her where she was getting her info, and she referred me to her Ansonia credit report which showed me at a whopping 210 days to pay.. It turned out that one factoring company had some typos in the information they were sending to Ansonia. So for a month I was in the dark, wondering what was going on. I won't paint them all with the same brush though: Apex and D&S are among the better ones. Upwards of 60% of carriers (according to my stats anyway) hire factoring companies, so cutting them out is really not an option. It is kinda stupid though.. I pay my bills within 72 hours, so some poor carriers are paying factoring companies when they really don't need to.
I've worked for some of the bigger freight brokers in their accounting and now run my own and it's the first time I've heard of a factoring company calling a shipper before or a bit after the 30 days to get payment details. If any factoring companies do that as a practice I will cut them out.
30
30
You should tell the carriers you can pay them that quickly. As I understand it, they do have the option of contacting the factoring company to have them "not factor" a certain invoice or invoices to certain companies...
I had the same problem as you with them reporting me really really late on my credit file... The worst one was Riviera Finance who swore up and down that they don't report. When I contacted Equifax they gave me Riviera's name as the one who reported me.... Looking up the details I was not in fact late paying them, they held the invoice from the carrier for such a long time before sending it to me, so it was already due when I received it...
We have found that there are enough carriers in our areas that do not factor, so we are able to avoid factoring companies altogether.
30
Some carriers will forgo the factor based on my days to pay, but others figure I don't provide them with enough loads to make the exception worthwhile. Funny you should mention Riviera... my experience with them has been exactly the same. One good thing about factoring (from a broker's standpoint) is that if the broker is deemed "factorable" by the big name brand factoring companies then that lends some credibility to the broker. If some carrier out of AL calls me on a load and sees that I'm approved by Apex (for example) then that "who the fuck are you" aspect of it goes away and they're more likely to work with me even if they don't factor their invoices.
Years ago I entertained the thought of using a factoring company until I seen the percentage they wanted and they wouldn't assume the non-payers, it still came back on me.
Every body should be like Landstar , deliver your load, scan paper work, 48 to 72 hours later moneys in the bank.
Why as a carrier should I wait 30 to 90 days sometimes longer for my money. Try that with Petro-Canada fuel card and see how far the truck gets. When you go to a restaurant do you tell them I'll pay for my meal a month or three from now.
Every body should be like Landstar , deliver your load, scan paper work, 48 to 72 hours later moneys in the bank.
Why as a carrier should I wait 30 to 90 days sometimes longer for my money. Try that with Petro-Canada fuel card and see how far the truck gets. When you go to a restaurant do you tell them I'll pay for my meal a month or three from now.
10
I haven't heard that they scammed anyone but have heard from many friends that they lose customers for carriers as they are very aggressive with collections. I have also heard that their clients often are forced out of business as they do not understand what they have signed contractually with Grand Financial. It does seem that others have sued them and won regarding the contract.
