Be careful in the coming months

From: January 13, 2021

The season is about to start again, Valentine's Day and Women's Day are in sight again. We hear from many customers that payment terms have risen sharply here and there and that is a bad sign with the approaching holidays. Will you continue to facilitate additional credit to your clients? If the bank no longer does it, the question is why you should do it. Obtaining collateral abroad is often very difficult, if not impossible.

The Corona situation has not made it any easier. The latest lockdowns in various countries also indicate the impotence of politicians how to deal with this. Despite the fact that the number of bankruptcies has decreased in many countries, we are not confident about the outcome. Many companies have been temporarily "helped" to survive and have received extra credit and / or deferments of payments and taxes, but that will have to be repaid some time.

Fortunately, we are seeing an increase in the requests for credit reports. More and more exporters, farms and cargo agencies are also double checking their existing customers, because securities from the past are no guarantee for the future. Helping a customer get through the difficult period is good, but it remains important to set the boundaries.

Unfortunately we also see some old acquaintances popping up. In particular with credit report requests of debtors from Italy, Russia, France (!), Poland and Romania, we see that the scammers are also trying to seize their opportunities. Often with new names and through front men, but usually we can trace this back to the names we know. Be careful, if it's too good to be true, it usually is.

You have to be warned: be extra careful in the coming weeks! Make sure you do a good background research to every new client. Consult the AgroCheck database and request for an up-to-date credit report for each new client, especially in the risk areas. Not a member yet? Just consider it: from only $450 per year you can save yourself a lot of misery!

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