Credit Policy for businesses and how to extend credit and manage credit risk

Many business owners are not familiar with the term "skip tracing" or a "skipped account".  This means that a debtor or someone who owes you money has "skipped" or you cannot locate them in order to try and collect the money they owe you.

Most business owners don't address this issue until it happens to them, which is a mistake.  The way you will know if one of your customers has skipped is if their mail is returned as moved left no address or maybe their phone is disconnnected, or both.  Then what do you do? How can you get paid?

There are many online databases you can use to try to locate someone, some are free and some you pay for.  Also, if you don't want to be bothered looking for someone that owes you money you can place the account with a collection agency and they will skip trace for you.

I recently ran across a poll where collectors were voting on which online skip tracing company has the most comprehensive and updated database.  To my surprise Accurint was at 40%, a tie with "other" also at 40%.  Merlin was only 10% and Skip Smasher was also at 10%. 

I have not used all of these databases so I cannot tell you how up to date they are, or who offers the best pricing.  But use this as a guide to help you determine if you want to use one of these services to locate the debtors that owe you money.  Good luck!