Top Service News
Case Study: Top Service ‘trading experiences’ protecting members from hundreds of thousands of pounds in bad debt
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Trading experiences, available exclusively through Top Service, are instrumental in protecting its membership of UK based construction companies from crippling bad debt.
In the following case study we will highlight a particular example where trading experiences saved one of our members hundreds of thousands of pounds. The submissions of information from members led to Top Service removing the credit limit for a contractor that was heading for liquidation, while standard credit reports from other credit reference agencies continued to suggest a safe credit limit of £10,000.
Firstly, we will summarise the trading experiences service.
What is Top Service’s trading experiences service?
Top Service is the only credit reference agency in the UK exclusively for the construction sector. The trading experiences scheme from Top Service has over 3000 construction industry members.
The members share their trading experiences through the community, telling us who they’re working with and whether they are being paid on time, late or not at all. By having access to these trading experiences, our members are able to make better and more informed decisions about extending credit facilities to a new customer. Our trading experiences allow members to have a better idea of what to expect; are they likely to be paid on time, late or have to look at third party action for collection?
Case study – Global Site Services
Global Site Services was a skip hire company that became insolvent in July 2022. Their most recent accounts were filed on 30th September 2020, leaving a period of 22 months without updated credit information. On the surface, the company appeared creditworthy; there were no warning signs in a standard credit report.
The information submitted by Top Service trading experiences members told a very different story. The volume and severity of the trading experiences, and proactive investigations by our debt recovery team, resulted in us removing the suggested credit limit in 2020, over two years prior to the liquidation of the company.
We sent early warning notifications to our members to deal with this company with extreme caution while other credit reference agencies were still recommending £10,000 + credit, even in the days before liquidation. We know that trading experiences saved our members hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Client testimonial from Brianplant (Humberside) Ltd, illustrating how trading experiences helped them to avoid bad debt in their dealings with Global Site Services
Global Site Services approached Brianplant Ltd for tens of thousands of pounds over several years, and each time they were rejected due to Top Service trading experiences. Jane Kyme, Office Manager, said, “If it wasn’t for the trading experiences, based on a standard credit report we may well have opened the account and lost a serious amount of money”.
Jane explained that just looking at standard credit information and using trade references supplied by the applicant, simply isn’t enough. An applicant is always going to provide trade references for businesses they pay on time, probably purely for the reason of using them for that purpose. Jane said that almost all of their credit decisions are made using our trading experiences, because they are the truth, the real way that an applicant trades with other people.
Of Global Site Services, Emma Reilly, Managing Director of Top Service, said, “We had numerous requests to review our credit limit in light of the large credit limits that other agencies were suggesting, however, through our trading experiences we were aware of information that wasn’t available to the other agencies so we maintained our position. This position saved our members thousands of pounds, as shortly after the company went into liquidation.”
Contact Top Service for more information about being part of the trading experiences community.