GCE FRANCE CREANCES

Debt collection

Amicable and judicial recovery civil and commercial debts

Entrust us with your unpaid bills

Amicable collection

Accelerate the collection of your outstanding payments while preserving your commercial relations.

Judicial recovery

Reduce legal costs for litigation recovery of your unpaid bills.

Delegate the administrative procedures to experts with a perfect command of all legal remedies.

International collection

Quickly collect your unpaid debts abroad with the help of experts with in-depth knowledge of the commercial and legal practices of each country.

Recouvrement de Créances - France et international | Gestion Credit Expert

What is a debt?

If the customer who must pay the payment does not pay his debt in time (on receipt of the order form, the invoice or the goods according to the conditions provided for at the start of the commercial relationship), the latter then becomes a delay. payment or unpaid.

The company’s customer is then considered the debtor, and the company waiting to be paid is the creditor. This is where the issue of debt collection comes in.

We speak of a civil debt if the client of the company is an individual, and of a commercial debt if the client of the company is another company.

What is debt collection ?

Debt collection is a regulated activity which consists in obtaining from a debtor that he discharges the debt of money which he contracted towards his creditor. Debt recovery can be obtained either amicably or through legal proceedings. In this case, we speak of judicial or litigation recovery.

How does debt collection work?

You must first check that your claim is justified: your claim must be certain, liquid (that is to say defined in its amount) and payable.

Amicable collection

Amicable collection can be provided either by the creditor company directly or by a third party such as a collection firm. The 1st step consists of sending a reminder to your debtor client.

Interventions with your client are then done by telephone, by post or by home visit, depending on the case. For effective debt collection , actions must be planned, consistent, paced and monitored over time.

This is not necessarily an easy thing for a company for which this is not the core business. To deal with this situation, you can decide to outsource this procedure through a debt collection firm .

Entrust us with your outstanding debt

Judicial recovery

Judicial or contentious recovery consists of seizing the competent court to obtain payment of your debt once all amicable reminders and attempts at negotiation have failed.

To be able to pursue the enforcement of your claim, you must obtain an enforceable title against your debtor client. The injunction to pay, the assignment to the fund, the summary provision, are all judicial recovery procedures for unpaid debts. Each has its particularities and each is activated according to the nature of your outstanding payment.

When a court decision is rendered and it is not contested, the case is entrusted to a bailiff. The latter then sets up enforcement procedures (attribution entry, sale entry, etc.). The costs of these procedures are borne by your debtor client, unless the latter is insolvent.

Debt collection in 4 steps

In 30 days maximum, 4 key steps possible

Leader du recouvrement de créances en France et à l'international | Gestion Credit Expert

The file is analyzed

and the first recovery actions are initiated amicably.

The arrears are settled

(about 85% of cases depending on the nature of the debt, its amount and its age).

The debt is irrecoverable

we then provide our client with a certificate of uncollectibility.

The debt requires legal action

the client then makes this decision on the basis of our advice.

Need help ?

We are here to help you.

What to do if your debt is irrecoverable?

If your debt is uncollectible, your unpaid invoice is reclassified as a “loss”. In this case, to recover the VAT from the tax services, a certificate of irrecoverability will be useful to you.

Only a professional recognized by the State, a debt collection company like ours, or a legal representative will be able to provide proof of the irrecoverable nature of your debt.

How do I know if a debt is time-barred?

The limitation period (link to be included as soon as the article is online) for a claim is 2 years if the debtor is an individual. It is 5 years if the debtor client is a professional.

However, these deadlines may be shorter depending on the sector of activity of the creditor. In the naval sector, for the acquisition of supplies of materials, constructions, equipment for supplying a ship, for example, this period is reduced to 1 year from the due date for payment of the invoice.

What to do in the event of an unpaid debt abroad?

When a customer domiciled abroad owes you money, the debt collection process can be longer and more complex.

Each country has its specificities: legislation, economic context, local practices, language, culture… These many variables influence the path to be taken for an appropriate and effective international debt collection .

While European procedures such as the European Enforcement Order, the European Order for Payment and the procedure for settling disputes under €2000 have been created to facilitate the recovery of unpaid claims within the European Union, procedures can be very long, costly, even subject to the judgment of judges in other countries

It is better to contact an international collection company who will be able to advise you on the best strategy to get you paid.

As you have understood, to recover your money quickly and make the process easier for you, the help of a collection company will be invaluable to you because the law in force in terms of collection can be difficult to understand if you are not subject matter expert.

How to choose a debt collection company?

If you decide to entrust your debts to a collection company, you must choose one that acts in your interests, both financial and economic, over time. Be sure to choose a debt collection firm that will be committed to helping you increase your cash flow, reduce your customer credit risks while ensuring that your business relationships are preserved.

If the pricing policy is an important component in the evaluation of the service provider to whom you will entrust your unpaid bills, it should not be your only choice. The professional competence of the lawyers in charge of debt collection, their mastery of and compliance with the legislation, their knowledge of the IT tools that they put at the service of their performance, their responsiveness, the quality processes, the transparency and the simplicity with which they act are all criteria to evaluate when you choose to mandate the collection company to recover your unpaid bills.

How can GESTION CREDIT EXPERT help you?

With more than 50 years of expertise, GESTION CREDIT EXPERT is a 100% French and independent key player in debt collection . Present in 7 French cities, we have in-depth knowledge of the debtor and the legislation.

For the international debt collection activity, our teams manage our network of 300 local correspondents throughout the world (lawyers, bailiffs, colleagues, etc.), all selected for their proven skills and their values shared with ours.