Collecting money that is owed is less than perfect at the best of times, but when the debtor is located across international borders, the whole process can become incredibly egregious. Collecting from international debtors involves more than just time zones and distance; there are also various legal and cultural differences that can stymie debt collection efforts. So let’s see how you can make the whole process easier and get your money back without huge obstacles in the way.
Know Before Go
The best defense is often a great offense, and this proves doubly true here. Take the offensive by knowing all you possibly can about who your customers are. One of the most effective ways of doing this is by hiring a specialist, such this company offering Reliable Tracing Agents Services -Bondrees.com, who will not only provide you with information about your customers, but will also be able to locate them wherever they may be. International credit checks can also often reveal a lot more than you would expect, including things like the names of directors and investors, revenue, and financial links to related companies. Of course, you can make the whole process laughably easy by hiring someone else to collect the debt for you; for example, an international debt collector like Oddcoll can take the whole problem out of your hands and solve it for you. This is especially advisable if you are not completely sure about what you are doing, and in a process like this, the smallest anomaly can completely upend the whole thing, so take all the precautions you can.
Enforceable Agreement
A preliminary consideration should be whether the debtor made a legally binding promise to pay you, and ideally, both parties should have some form of written contract. For an agreement to be binding, it requires both an “offer” and an “acceptance” of the offer. The general rule is that the formation of a contract occurs at the location of the acceptance, and usually, courts require not only the acceptance part but also the communication of that acceptance.
This ensures that both sides are aware that the agreement has started. Basically, this all means that the methods you are using to create the contract with someone who is overseas or over a border, whether it is email, post, or something else, can have a bearing on what law governs your agreement.
Letter of Demand
One way to try and get the money is to issue a formal letter of demand for the money owed to you. Even if you have already been chasing the debtor for the money, a formal letter can sometimes compel them to act, and this is particularly so if you clearly state your intention to move on to legal proceedings. It may scare the debtor into action.
Court proceedings can take a long time, however, and they obviously vary from country to country, so it is quite difficult to give advice for this measure as it can be so wildly different from what you actually need and requires a good lawyer and a lot of research. Try every alternative measure first before going the legal route.
Debts have to be repaid, whether locally or internationally, so do everything and take every measure to get the money that is owed to you back. Debt collection can be a messy business, but with a few tips, it can already appear a lot clearer, and if you have someone who knows what they are doing to assist you, then you are already halfway there.