Advice On Debt Factoring
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.
It should not be used to pay your own bills or your business bills, if you need it for that it may be a good time to take a look at your company’s financial condition. Your company should be able to pay for its own bills out of the money they get as a profit. The same thing goes for you, you must pay your debts with the, money you get as a salary.
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.
They are not running any risks because the banking instrument guarantees their money and therefor the commission you are paying them. You on the other hand are getting the money that you need to replenish your materials and product reserves, you will lose a small percentage by paying the factoring entity. You would lose much more if you did not have any product to sell.
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 method of stabilizing the cash flow in your business by the practice of invoice discounting. You get the benefit of revenue from sales right away and none of the hassle of bad debt collection.
