Late payment pain – helping your customers become debt free
Millions of people became debt free with Intrum in 2022, freeing them and their creditors from the pain of financial difficulty.
At Intrum, we know that you can’t run your business properly if you’re always worrying about late payments.
We also know that it’s important to you to support your customers in difficult times. The problem is that time spent chasing payments takes your focus away from your core business activities. According to Intrum’s European Payment Report 2023, businesses spend an average of 10.4 hours a week chasing customers for payment – which adds up to a massive 74 days a year.
That’s where Intrum comes in. We work with our clients’ customers to resolve their financial difficulties, helping them get paid so they can focus on delivering their services and growing their business.
Our approach works – in 2022, over four million customers became debt free with Intrum and 8.7 million accounts were resolved for our clients*. Meanwhile our global average Customer Satisfaction Score was 4.2 out of 5, which indicates that we are successful in meeting our customers in line with our principles for ethical debt collection.
Helping society function
In Intrum’s latest European Payment Report, almost one in six (59%) of businesses said they are more concerned than ever before about their customers’ ability to pay on time. If paid more promptly, businesses say they could increase investment in sustainability, expand their products and hire more staff.
There are many reasons people get into problem debt, from relationship breakdown to bereavement, illness or job loss. Others find it difficult to manage their money, while recently the cost of living crisis means more people are struggling to make ends meet. We help our clients prosper and grow their businesses by caring for their customers.
Debt is an essential part of society, helping people and businesses achieve their aims. But when things go wrong, consumers aren’t always able to get themselves out of difficulty. They need specialist help and an empathetic approach.
Despite the recent economic crisis, our customers are succeeding in meeting their repayment plans and reaching their debt-free days. We’re committed to ensuring it stays that way – and our processes are designed to adapt to changing conditions. For example, we use client and customer satisfaction surveys to monitor customer experiences so we can react quickly to support people in the best way.
We believe these customers are great prospects for the future, having spent months or years working to tight budgets and repaying the money they owe. While their credit ratings have been reduced, they are able to rebuild their financial reputations and meet their goals – whether that’s buying a home, paying for education, or saving for a holiday.
How do we do it?
We work with people in debt at all stages of the cycle – though we are increasingly involved earlier as lenders aim to stop consumers from getting into difficulty. Either on the phone or using our self-serve digital options, we establish each individual’s true financial circumstances and work with them to set a budget and arrange a repayment plan.
Our repayment plans are designed to be manageable and sustainable, so our clients can be repaid, individuals are free to get on with their lives, and society functions properly. As a specialist, we have the technology, people, and expertise to work with consumers to solve their financial issues and get them back on track.
It is good for society that money flows effectively and individuals are helped to free themselves from problem debt. We take the responsibility we have to consumers, our clients and society at large very seriously and are proud to be part of the solution.
*We revealed this figure in our Annual Sustainability Report 2022, download your copy of the report today to learn more.
