Collecting Debts In Ireland Can Be Very Frustrating

There is a lot of controversy about collecting debts in Ireland and there are renewed calls for collectors and agencies to be licensed. Reports of intimidation and other unscrupulous acts by agents pursuing their debtors require the enforcement of regulations in the industry. There are many underlying reasons for creditors who resort to these tactics.

It can be understood that businesses need to recover their money in some legitimate way. The process has to be made more affordable to the small business owner as well. Even uncontested claims from creditors are time consuming and costly.

When a bad debt is handed over to an agency for collection, the creditor would most likely already have tried everything in his power to recover the money owed to him. This step is often a last resort and the creditor does not particularly care how the debt is recovered rogue agencies. Small and medium business owners will appreciate the impact that outstanding payments have on their business and may tend to agree with any extreme methods employed to recover their money.

The Irish government have introduced the small claims court as a method for claiming money owed to small and medium businesses by private individuals. Unfortunately the amount that they can claim does not always cover their loss. Claims from other businesses cannot be settled by the small claims court either and need to be referred to the judicial system.

The judicial system in the country may not be up to the task of streamlining and making the collection of money from bad debtors any easier in the near future. The country is facing a very difficult economic crisis at the moment and needs to make provisions for business to be reimbursed by the use of suitable regulations. The regulations should not deflect from the basic rights of individuals either, rather the best interests of both parties should be considered.

The introduction of the small claims court was an ideal opportunity for fast tracking civil claims by business to business. Unfortunately it was overlooked by the legislators and businesses are no better off where these debtors are concerned. Solicitors are very expensive and out of the reach of small to medium businesses in the country.

The fiery temperament of the Irish is well known and a person can well imagine to what lengths they would go to recover monies owed to them. The Irish are on the other hand a very generous people and are often willing to allow consumers too much leeway in paying off their accounts. This unfortunately creates a ripple effect where the amount owing eventually reaches unacceptable proportions. Proper credit management agreements in accordance with sound financial restrictions, based on the persons credit record and ability to repay the debt, would need to be practised to prevent the situation from getting out of hand.

There is no doubt that much work has to done to solve the issue of collecting debts in Ireland. Businesses are failing, causing more unemployment in an already cash strapped society. Friendships are being broken because of bad debt and unnecessary unethical behaviour is being used to collect what is owed.