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19 March 2024

Personal finance: Why creditors invoke delay strategies?

Theda Muller

Published

As a creditor if you have never faced a debt-crisis then now is the time to exhume your empathy, co-operation, understanding, assistance and undue invaluable support and why? 

You have a job to do to recoup your organizations outstanding debtors; 

You have the power to change a life that is placed in your hands; 

It is the right thing to do; 

Whatever the debtor’s debt situation, they came to you for help and support, so ignoring them and invoking delay tactics until the next month’s payment is due, is unacceptable; 

It’s not good to sit in a position of strength just because you can and prolong a debtor’s agony; 

You don’t own your organisation so developing a negative attitude towards the debtor is done in bad taste, because the personal has nothing to do with the business; 

The debtor never approached you for charity, but for help to repay their debt in a more manageable way; 

An experienced creditor will be able to identify these characters. 

It’s unfair of a creditor to request a debtor to pay their current outstanding overdue amounts and/or the minimum amount, request them to submit their documentation for review for restructures or consolidations which is then submitted by the debtor, only to find that the entire process is delayed, or not even attended to, until the next payment is due one month later. 

Then the debtor is bombarded with demands, legal action notification and the likes where most of the time the debtor is really unable to defend themself, so they must continue to ‘eat humble pie’, resort to borrowing from friends and family to avoid this action, whilst the creditor continues to delay the finalisation of the debtors request, until the second month and so it continues... 

When an individual faces a debt-crisis and approaches a creditor it means they are absolutely depleted, at their wits end, engulfed with fear and nowhere to run or turn.

So why does the creditor not review this situation seriously? 

The significance of a creditors co-operation is: 

The money is still repaid, just over a longer tenure; 

You’ve not had to extend your working hours to accommodate the debtors request; 

You minimise your default ratio; 

You minimise your legal action ratio; 

Just maybe you increase your service levels standards in the local market with minimal negative ratings; 

You minimise losses by minimising your outsourcing because you are able to effectively manage the default volume; 

You minimise your insurance claim exposure and risks; 

When you instigate and impose unecessary fear on anyone, then it has a huge negative impact on the human emotions where there are so many bad spin-offs resulting from this action. 

It’s unfair to delay a very important process and facet of someone’s life for one, two or more months because all you must think about is ‘what if this was not our clients, or 500 like him, where would we get jobs or how would we I be able to retain my job?’ 

Finally, do the job you were assigned to do on behalf of the debtor and more so if you promised them that it would be reviewed within a few days or one week because it is important, extremely important that you keep your commitment and word. 

A debtor does not have spare money for ongoing mobile phone calls as they can hardly survive if facing a debt-crisis so things creditors take for granted hugely affect such a person’s life when they have no financial means. 

[Note 1:  Theda Muller is a UAE-based author of two books: Embrace Financial Freedom Volume One: 10 Proven Ways To Release Debt And Emotional Fears In Today’s Economy, and Volume Two: Releasing Fear And Bouncing Back From A Debt Crisis.] 

[Note 2: The views expressed are the author’s own and do not reflect in any way, the views of Emirates 24|7. Readers are advised to carry out their own due diligence before taking any decision.]