Commercial Credit Collection Services | B2B Debt Recovery – Atradius

Timelines depend on the collection phase and debtor location. Amicable collection typically resolves within 2–8 weeks. If legal action is needed, dunning procedures take 2–12 weeks, depending on the country, while full court proceedings can range from 8 months to over 2 years for complex cross-border cases. Your account manager provides a specific timeline estimate during the case assessment.

Costs depend on case value, debtor location, and collection phase. We offer transparent pricing with no hidden fees. In many cases, collection costs are recoverable from the debtor under local law. For example, in Germany, collection costs are recoverable under §280 and §286 BGB. Request a free quote for pricing tailored to your situation.

Absolutely not. Our amicable-first approach resolves the payment issue while preserving the commercial relationship. Many of our clients retain long-term business relationships with customers even after collection. You control the escalation level at every stage.

A credit bureau (like Experian or Dun & Bradstreet) collects and reports credit information. A credit collection agency actively recovers debts on your behalf through negotiation and legal action. Atradius Collections is a commercial debt collection agency—we recover the money owed to you, rather than simply reporting on creditworthiness.

Yes. We collect domestically in over 50 countries and handle international cases across 96% of the world. Our local presence means we pursue debtors in their own jurisdiction, language, and legal framework—whether your debtor is in Germany, the USA, Australia, Singapore, or Brazil.

Three options: request a free consultation to discuss your needs, get a free quote for specific cases, or submit a case directly through our online platform. For multiple or ongoing cases, speak to a specialist about a tailored partnership.

At Atradius Collections, we offer our credit collection services in many countries around the world. In Western Europe, we have offices in the United Kingdom (with an office in Cardiff) and Ireland (Dublin), Norway, Sweden (Valby), Finland, Denmark (Copenhagen), the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Ommen), Belgium (Namur), Luxembourg, Germany (Cologne), Switzerland, Austria and France (Compiegne), Portugual (Lisbon), Spain (Madrid), Italy (Milan) and Greece. We also offer credit collection service portfolio in eastern Europe: in Poland (Warsaw), Czechia (Prague), Slovakia, Hungary (Budapest), among others. There are parts of Africa, including South Africa, in which we offer our credit collection service portfolio through our European offices (through the U.K. office in the case of South Africa). In the Middle East, we provide our customers with out credit collection services through our Dubai office, among others. In the Asia Pacific region we offer credit collection services in China (both the mainland and in Hong Kong) as well as in Japan, Singapore, Australia (Sydney) and New Zealand. And in the Americas we offer credit collection services in Canada (Mississauga), the United States (Downers Grove), Mexico (Mexico City) and Brazil (Sao Paulo).

The amount of time you spend chasing unpaid invoices can vary widely from organisation to organisation. Some entrepreneurs choose to do this all by themselves. Especially when you are dealing with many customers, each of which make up a small percentage of the total revenue, this can take up a lot of time. For other entrepreneurs with one or two clients, it is often easier. They may not need to use debt collection services, especially when the relationship with their clients is good and their clients tend to pay them on time. Some larger organisations have an in-house team that deals with these kinds of issues. For example, most multinationals have their own in-house accounts receivable teams or contracts with external agencies to manage their credit collection services. In either case, because of the much larger scale of things, these types of teams can go about things much more efficiently.

Documentation is almost always a good thing when taking out credit collection services. After all, the situation could reach a stage where court involvement becomes necessary. And being able to provide written proof or documents that support your version of events can make a significant difference in terms of the legal proceedings, in the unfortunate event were things were to escalate so far. Oftentimes, cases do not make their way to the courts. They are often resolved amicably. But it cannot hurt to be well prepared for the scenario when that is the case. In general, it is always a good idea to keep a copy of contracts. Even when relations with your customers are good, it may be a good thing to be able to look up how exactly you agreed on things when the relationship began. It is also to be recommended to maintain a solid administration regarding the products and services that the clients took out, the invoices that you have sent out and the payments as they have come in. Especially when there are payments that are conducted in cash or by means other than electronic funds transfers (EFTs), then it can be easy to lose track of who paid how much on which dates if you do not keep reliable records of this. It may be a good idea to keep an administration of the delivery of products and services. When for example, you provide services on your customer's property, you may want to take a photo of the work you did. When delivering physical products, you can have the customer sign a document by which they confirm the receipt of the product. These are ways in which you can document that you delivered the product or the service to the customer. You may also want to maintain a database (or to maintain a spreadsheet) containing detailed debtor information. Details such as your client’s company name, address, phone numbers, and email addresses can be invaluable if unexpected issues arise. In any case, documentation helps establish the validity of your claims in terms of how much your client owes you. This helps reduce disputes and tends to make collection efforts easier.