Oct 14, 2026 · 20 min · 8 segments
International debt collection requires an understanding of local laws, cultural norms and repayment practices to maintain trust and secure payments across borders.
Mahika RavishankarHostWith technology being one major challenge, I think you mentioned the French-
UK market How are challenges similar across the different markets which you're operational in, and also what are some areas of difference?
Negotiations around repayment plans, or even challenges with languages are similar.
Obviously, that relationship with a key supplier can often be kind of fundamental to a business.
I think probably the thing that hits hard, even though it is a similar challenge across different regions, is once you get into that legal stage of collections.
I remember when I first started and, and one of the first cases that I looked at was a case in the US, and we started dealing with our, our US counterparts, and they were kind of chatting me through the process.
You have to have certain licenses in different states to do different things, and there's 50 of them, so you're, you're potentially dealing with 50 different setups depending on where your, your debtors actually are.
So in UK law, generally, if you're of the right authority in an organization, you're legally able to act on behalf of a company.
Once you get into America, if we asked someone to, to kind of step up, they have to have a legal power of attorney notarized by a signatory of the company, and that's before you even start.
So I think while it's a common challenge, there is so many differences in different legal jurisdictions.
And then if I talk about some kind of cultural differences maybe, so legally in many countries you're allowed to charge costs and interest on overdue debts, as I'm sure our listeners are fully aware.
Well, if you pay the principal the full balance, we'll waive the cost and interest.
But in countries like the Netherlands, it's very common practice that the cost and interest get paid in full.
With technology being one major challenge, I think you mentioned the French-
UK market How are challenges similar across the different markets which you're operational in, and also what are some areas of difference?
Negotiations around repayment plans, or even challenges with languages are similar.
Obviously, that relationship with a key supplier can often be kind of fundamental to a business.
I think probably the thing that hits hard, even though it is a similar challenge across different regions, is once you get into that legal stage of collections.
I remember when I first started and, and one of the first cases that I looked at was a case in the US, and we started dealing with our, our US counterparts, and they were kind of chatting me through the process.
You have to have certain licenses in different states to do different things, and there's 50 of them, so you're, you're potentially dealing with 50 different setups depending on where your, your debtors actually are.
So in UK law, generally, if you're of the right authority in an organization, you're legally able to act on behalf of a company.
Once you get into America, if we asked someone to, to kind of step up, they have to have a legal power of attorney notarized by a signatory of the company, and that's before you even start.
So I think while it's a common challenge, there is so many differences in different legal jurisdictions.
And then if I talk about some kind of cultural differences maybe, so legally in many countries you're allowed to charge costs and interest on overdue debts, as I'm sure our listeners are fully aware.
Well, if you pay the principal the full balance, we'll waive the cost and interest.
But in countries like the Netherlands, it's very common practice that the cost and interest get paid in full.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
