Debt Factoring – A Good Way To Raise Business Finance?
Borrowing money from your bank using uncollected bills from your clients as collateral is called debt factoring. This is a process by which a business can get to use money that is owed to them before they collect the debt or credit. Usually it is done with thirty and sixty day bills. It is also done with bills that are signed by your good clients.
Factoring is like a loan but you will not pay interests on it, you will be charged a small fee for each factoring operation that the bank accepts to do. There is one important issue that you must not forget; your bank is not buying debt from you.
You must not factor all your company’s debt because even though you are getting immediate funds for fifteen, thirty or whatever day sales you are still losing some of it through the banks commission. It is important to factor only the amount of money that you need immediately. That way you will have the funds required to continue working and you reduce loses due to bank commissions.
It is important to keep a balance on this matter for on the long run you may end up paying the bank more than you wanted or more than you had to. Factoring is an instrument to get fresh capital and not a way to get paid early. Keep that in mind because it is not free and abusing it will have consequences unless you have added a percentage to the price that will cover the banks commission on the operation.
Another very important factor when considering debt factoring is that you must not bring all your debts to the bank. You must take only the ones which you know your client is trustworthy and will pay in time. When the bank fails to collect a debt on the day it is supposed to be paid, they will come back to you for collection.
If the bank has to collect from you the factoring commission will change from a commission to an interest plus penalties for late payment. This will add up to more money than you expected. Usually it will be something around the interest you pay when you request an overdraft on your check book.
It is a constant circle that never ends because with the money you get you are able to buy more products which you again sell on credit and again factor the debt. The banks are the happiest people in this circle because they are making a commission out of every operation done by every client. They have all the inside information so they have no real risk when it comes to buying debt.
Debt factoring is a way of improving the cash flow in your business by the practice of invoice discounting. You get the benefit of cash from sales right away and avoid the hassle of bad debt collection.
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