Letter: K

Credit status

Credit status

Credit Status is an online debt register that gives creditors and lenders insight into customers' information about existing loans, credits and debts.

Credit Status is a product published by Norwegian Experian, formerly known as RKI (Ribers Kredit Information).

What can credit status be used for?

Credit status allows you as a company, creditor and creditor to get an overview of your customers' credits - if the customer has one of the participating creditors and they have sent information to the platform.

Credit status allows lenders to make credit assessments based on the information available on the platform, provided it is relevant to the lender and accessible to the consumer.

In addition to using the system to make credit assessments, the company can also use credit status to verify the borrower's name and address, see the number of lenders, the number of agreements, the types of loans taken out, when the credits were established and what the original principal amount was.

In addition, the credit status shows whether a loan/credit is in arrears and therefore not paid.

On the platform, businesses, creditors and lenders can view existing credit agreements until they are repaid and which ones have been repaid within the last 6 months.

Participating lenders

Currently, there are only 13 banks and lenders that are enrolled in credit status and thus send credit information to CreditStatus.

The participating lenders are:

  • Bank Norwegian
  • COOP Bank
  • Express Bank
  • EnterCard Denmark
  • Facit Bank
  • Ikano Bank
  • Nordea Finance
  • Qliro
  • Resurs Bank
  • Santander
  • SEB
  • Spar Nord
  • TF Bank

The above list is as of September 2024 - it may have grown or shrunk since then.

RKI and credit status are not the same thing

Som online platform for kredittjek er vi dagligt i dialog med mange virksomheder om løsninger inden for kreditdata, KYC og kreditanbefalinger.

We often hear questions about RKI and credit status - and many people mistakenly think that RKI and credit status are the same thing, but they are not.

Both RKI and credit status are published by Norwegian Experian (formerly Ribers Kredit Information) and are basically both debt registers - registers of debt for private individuals and companies.

However, the fundamental difference is that RKI is a register of defaults, including defaulted credits or unpaid invoices, while credit status simply shows existing debt relationships with participating banks and lenders.

On CreditStatus, you can also see debts that are in arrears.

Both RKI and credit status can be used separately, but both for the purpose of contributing to the credit rating of customers.

See your own credit status

As a consumer, you have the option to view your own credit status by logging in to the website with MyID.

On this page, you can view your existing credit agreements as well as the credit agreements that have been repaid within the last 6 months. Keep in mind that you must have one of the participating lenders to view the information.

Få hjælp til kredittjek med Qatchr

Qatchr er et online værktøj til kredittjek – udviklet i samarbejde med en af Nordens største inkassofirmaer, Collectia.

With Qatchr, we've made it easy for you to gain insights into your customers' financial situation, public accounts and much more.

Qatchr kan foretage kredittjek af både privatpersoner og virksomheder og kan på baggrund af en lang række forhold og parametre hjælpe kreditorer og långivere med anbefalinger om kreditstørrelser, kredittid og meget mere.

Get a free, no-obligation demo of Qatchr today.

Credit alert

Credit alert

A credit alert is an alert about your current or prospective customers that gives you useful information about their creditworthiness and/or financial situation.

In practice, a credit alert is often a notification that one or more credit notes have been registered on a debtor - either a company or a private individual.

For example, the credit alert notifies you that a debtor is registered in a debt register, such as RKI or Debtor List.

Why is a credit alert relevant to me?

With a credit alert on your customers, you get an update when your customers' financial situation changes - or when they are registered in a debt register, for example.

This way, a credit alert can warn you of any upcoming bad payers and enable you to react before the next invoice is sent to the customer.

In other words, a credit alert gives you a tool that can help minimize bad payers and allow you to act accordingly. This could be, for example, requiring cash payment in advance of the next order.

One-time credit alert or continuous updates

Kreditvarsler kan fungere på mange måder. Den mest almindelige metode er, at virksomheder foretager et manuelt kredittjek af deres kunder – eksempelvis op mod et gældsregister.

But it has become increasingly possible to subscribe to customers' information as it is updated.

Det betyder, at det i dag er muligt at få besked, når en kunde registreres i et gældsregister – og ikke kun som et kredittjek ved oprettelsen af kunden.

With ongoing credit alerts, you can customize your future invoices for a customer, for example by limiting the credit period or credit size.

Qatchr can help you with credit alert

Hos Qatchr har vi en online kreditplatform, der gør det nemt for virksomheder at foretage kredittjek af deres kunder – uanset om de er privatpersoner eller virksomheder.

Vores online værktøj til indhentning af kreditoplysninger kan bl.a. hjælpe dig med alt fra KYC til kreditvarsler.

With Qatchr, you can subscribe to all or part of your customer database and receive relevant information when a customer's financial situation changes.

Contact us today for a free, no-obligation demo of our solution.

Credit protection

Credit protection

Credit protection refers to all the actions that a creditor/lender takes to secure their credit/loan.

All credit and loans have an inherent risk of non-repayment - which can be due to the debtor/borrower's bankruptcy, death or worsening financial situation.

Credit protection helps to minimize or completely avoid the potential loss that can be incurred by granting credit. In other words, credit protection helps reduce the creditor/bank's risk, enabling a loan or credit that might not have been possible without credit protection.

Traditional credit security is, for example, a mortgage on the debtor's assets, property and chattels. There is also the option of a guarantor guarantee, loss guarantee or counter guarantee.

The topic of credit protection is very extensive, and in this article we will only go through the most common types of credit protection. If you want to know more about credit protection, there is a wide range of literature on the subject, including publications from Karnov, Djøf and ASPIRI.

Who does credit protection?

In Denmark, it is mainly banks, credit institutions and other lenders that provide credit protection, where, for example, a mortgage is taken out on movable or immovable property as security for a loan or credit.

In addition, surety is also often used by banks, for example in limited liability companies where the company's owners guarantee loans and credits.

In Denmark, there is no tradition of companies securing credit in the form of pledges and the like when granting credit for, for example, the purchase of goods.

Credit protection for companies with credit

Many Danish companies provide credit for the purchase of goods and services, but do not provide traditional credit protection as banks and other lenders do.

In contrast, many companies' credit protection consists of assessing credit and gaining a satisfactory insight into the customer's finances in order to create the best framework for credit - including credit time and credit length.

Dermed kan en god kreditvurdering med den rette kredittid og kreditlængde resultere i, at virksomheden får strikket de rette vilkår sammen for en kredit til en kunde.

Get help with your credit protection with Qatchr

Qatchr er et online værktøj til kredittjek af privatpersoner og virksomheder.

With Qatchr, you get an online solution that makes it possible to gain insight into your customers' finances and financial situation - and thus be able to credit-proof your customers to a higher degree than without relevant data.

Contact us today for a free, no-obligation demo of the solution.

Credit process

Credit process

A credit process is the process a company goes through to establish and maintain credit.

The credit process can basically be anything from a few actions to several extensive checks, follow-ups and the like. It basically depends on the company.

Many often think of the credit process as the initial steps before credit is granted, but you should also think of the credit process as all the work involved in maintaining, updating and updating credits for each individual customer.

Why have a credit process?

If a company provides credit or loans, the company should also have a credit process that is carried out when the credit is granted and continuously during the lifetime of the credit.

The credit process helps ensure the right framework for your credit granting and ensures that the customer should have credit, how much credit the customer should have and for how long.

The credit process aims, among other things, to:

  1. Qualify the customer for the credit
  2. Qualify the amount of credit (credit limit/credit maximum)
  3. Qualify the length of the credit(credit time)

What does a credit process include?

A credit process basically qualifies whether the customer should have credit, how much credit the customer should have, and how long the customer should have credit.

The process is up to the company and in our experience, most credit processes are non-existent or very limited in scope.

However, if the credit process is flawed or non-existent, it can have major consequences, as in the worst case it can lead to large losses on debtors.

That's why we always recommend that you check at least the following:

  • How long has the company been in business?
  • Who are the owners of the company?
  • What do the company's latest public accounts say?
  • What type of company does the customer have?
  • Does the company have a previous payment history with you?
  • What industry is the customer in?

All this information should help determine how long and how much credit the company should have.

If there are too many alarming elements in the credit process, it is also possible to decline credit and demand cash payment.

Get help with your credit process

With Qatchr, you can get help with your credit process - either automatically or manually.

Vi hjælper dig med alt fra KYC, kredittjek og meget mere. Vi kan hjælpe dig med både privatpersoner og virksomheder.

Qatchr is an online tool that you can use without installation and on all devices. Qatchr gives you insight into your customers' financial situation, which is a great complement to your credit rating and credit process.

We can help you with credit times, credit sizes and credit recommendations.

Credit maximum

Credit maximum

When credit or loans are granted in general, it is often subject to a set of conditions(credit terms) and frameworks between the borrower and lender (debtor and creditor).

These conditions can include, for example, how much the credit is for, how long the credit extends for and when the credit must be repaid.

When talking about the credit limit, the term "credit maximum" is used.

In other words, the credit limit is the maximum amount of credit that a lender (creditor) wants to give to a borrower (debtor).

Credit maximum is often also referred to as credit max, credit limit or credit line - but is basically the same thing.

Why have a credit limit?

All credit and debt involves risk for the lender/creditor.

The risk is that the lender/creditor does not recover all or part of its outstanding debt from the borrower/debtor. This may be due to death, bankruptcy or other financial circumstances that have affected the debtor's ability to pay since the loan/credit was taken out.

Therefore, the lender/creditor should always try to limit their risk of loss - and one way to do this is by introducing a credit limit.

With a customized credit limit, you help minimize your risk of loss in the unfortunate event that your borrower goes bankrupt, dies or experiences other circumstances that affect their ability to pay.

This means that the credit limit is not there to avoid a possible loss, but to limit it.

What should a credit limit be?

We get this question a lot, but the simple answer is that no two customers are the same - and therefore their credit limit shouldn't be either.

That said, however, there are many companies that, for example, provide 25,000 or 50,000 kroner in credit to all new customers without performing major credit assessments, KYC or similar.

If the customer wants more credit than that, it will often require a manual credit check, KYC or similar actions.

There is no right or wrong way to provide credit - some customers should have no credit at all, while other customers can have millions in credit.

Just be aware that the more credit you extend, the higher your risk.

We always recommend that you spend the necessary time researching who your customers are; pulling recent financial statements, doing a credit check, querying a debt register and the like.

Based on this, you can set a credit limit.

Get help setting your credit limit with Qatchr

Qatchr is an online tool for credit checks, KYC and credit scoring.

With Qatchr, you get a powerful tool to gain insight into your customers and their financial situation.

Qatchr can obtain credit information on both individuals and businesses, giving you the right tools to set a credit limit.

Contact us today - we'll be happy to show you what the tool can do and how it can add value to your business.

Credit limit

Credit limit

A credit limit is the monetary limit to which a creditor/lender wishes to extend credit to a debtor/borrower.

The credit limit can vary from debtor to debtor - or from industry to industry.

In some accounting and ERP systems, a credit limit is also called credit max, credit maximum or credit size - but is basically the same thing.

Why introduce a credit limit?

All credit carries a risk - a risk that the debtor/borrower will not be able to pay back all or part of the amount. There are many reasons for this, but it can be the result of bankruptcy, death or a change in financial circumstances.

Therefore, it is also important that you as a creditor/lender impose a credit limit to minimize your potential loss on each debtor.

What should a credit limit be?

You basically can't say what a credit limit should be in general. Some customers should have no credit, while other customers may have millions in credit limit.

You should consider each debtor individually when setting the credit limit. If you don't consider the individual debtor, there is too great a risk that individual debtors will have too high credit limits - and thus pose too great a risk to your credit policy.

You should basically set your credit limits based on the following:

  • Payment history: Has the customer previously paid all invoices on time?
  • What are the customer's accounting figures?
  • What industry is the customer in?
  • Who is the owner and management of the company?
  • What is the company's legal form?

There are also a number of online tools that can help you set a credit limit for your customers based on their information, including Qatchr.

Why extend credit?

"Why extend credit at all? That way you minimize the risk of bad payers."

We are often asked this question, and it is basically correct. If no credit is granted, you will theoretically also minimize your risk of losses on debtors.

But credit is used in many industries as a sales and competitive differentiator - so much so that if your business doesn't provide credit, you risk customers choosing you over competitors who do.

With a good credit scheme, for example, a builder can purchase materials from a DIY store, use them on site and receive payment from the customer before they settle with the DIY store. This gives tradesmen a number of cash flow advantages and they don't need to pay for the materials before they are used and invoiced. Tradesmen will therefore turn you down if you don't offer credit.

In addition, credit time can also be a competitive parameter.

Get help with credit limits with Qatchr

Qatchr is an online tool that can help you with everything from KYC and credit checks to setting credit limits for your private and business customers.

Our online solution collects a range of public and non-public data about your customers and uses it to give you financial insights into your customers. It also includes advice on credit duration and credit limits for your customers.

You are welcome to contact us today for a demo of the system.

Credit period

Credit period

When credit is granted, it is often with an expiration date or a payment date - this period is called the credit period.

The term "credit period" is used both when referring to credit in connection with the payment of an invoice, but it is also used to refer to the period during which credit has been made available at a bank or other lender.

Credit time in connection with an invoice

When a trader sends an invoice, the trader has the option of either demanding cash payment upon delivery of the goods or giving the customer a payment deadline of, for example, 7 days.

This period between the delivery of the goods and the time when the customer has to pay is called credit time.

The credit period can vary from company to company and from customer to customer.

It is basically up to the creditor/seller to determine their own payment terms, and the seller is therefore free to decide whether they want cash payment or choose to grant 90-day credit.

Credit time as a sales and competitive parameter

Many industries and companies are known for providing long credit terms, such as the food and construction industries.

This means that many craftsmen can, for example, purchase materials and obtain a long enough credit period to be able to resell the materials before they have to pay themselves.

This means that the credit period has a huge impact on a company's cash flow. In many cases, a company can avoid having to use its own money to pay for materials and goods altogether if the credit period is long enough and the products are sold (and paid for) in time.

How credit duration is affected

Whether a credit period should be long or short basically depends on the seller's need to get money in the till quickly. It is therefore up to the seller to set their own credit and credit periods, although the market, industry or customers will often pressure the seller to provide longer credit periods if, for example, the industry and competitors provide long credit periods.

In practice, the buyer's (debtor's) ability to pay and financial situation also have a big impact on the seller's appetite for granting long credit. The better the debtor's financial situation and history, the better credit terms can (theoretically) be obtained from a supplier.

Get help with your credit time

Med Qatchr får du et onlineværktøj til bl.a. kredittjek og KYC. Qatchr er med til at give indblik i dine kunders økonomiske situation og dermed gøre dig bedre rustet til bl.a. at undgå dårlige betalere.

With Qatchr's insights into your customers, you also get a tool that can help you calculate your customers' credit times and credit maximums.

Try Qatchr today and start working with your customers' credit times.

Credit terms

Credit terms

The topic of credit terms is huge, and every day employees at Danish banks and other lenders work to change and optimize credit terms for their customers.

In this post, we have chosen to focus on credit in connection with invoice purchases - when a company chooses to provide credit to a customer and where the payment deadline is in the future.

Parameters in credit terms

Basically, the seller (creditor) determines its own credit terms and credit policies.

The creditor can demand anything from cash payment upon delivery of an item to providing many days or months of credit if desired.

Theoretically, credit terms should vary from customer to customer, as no two customers are the same and therefore do not have the same credit terms. In practice, we find that most companies have the same credit terms for their customers.

Basic parameters in credit terms for most businesses are credit duration and credit size.

Credit period

Credit period is the amount of time you want to give your customers credit for. The credit period can vary from cash payment (no credit period) to several months. The credit period is basically up to the seller to decide.

However, there may be certain competitive, sales and market conditions that mean some sellers may feel compelled to offer long credit periods. Many industries, such as construction, have historically had large and long credit lines, and thus a seller in that industry may be forced to offer the same credit periods if they don't want customers to reject them due to short credit periods.

Long credit periods are often an advantage for the buyer, who can buy an item on credit and have time to sell (and get paid for) the item before it has to be settled with the seller.

Long credit periods are often a disadvantage for the seller, as the seller has an inherent risk in granting credit. A risk that consists of not getting their money if the buyer goes bankrupt, dies or similar.

Credit size

The credit size is the amount of a credit. The higher the credit size, the more the buyer can purchase on credit.

A large credit size naturally carries a higher risk for the seller, as all credit has an inherent risk that the debtor cannot pay back all or part of the amount.

Conversely, a large credit size is an advantage for the buyer (debtor), as the buyer can purchase more goods without having to pay for them on delivery.

Why are credit terms important for a business?

All debt and credit pose a risk to the provider of the debt or credit. In the vast majority of everyday cases, credit, credit periods and credit sizes are unproblematic as long as the debtor pays their invoices or repays their debt.

But in cases where a debtor/borrower does not meet their obligations, does not pay their debts or does not pay their invoices, it is important to have strong credit terms that help avoid or minimize the potential loss that may occur.

The right credit terms and credit sizes are important to minimize the risk of bad debt losses.

Get help with your credit terms

With Qatchr, you get an innovative online tool that can give you insight into your customers' financial situation.

Qatchr tilbyder kreditopslag af privatpersoner og kredittjek af erhvervskunder, der bl.a. inkluderer anbefalinger til kreditstørrelser og kredittid.

Contact us today and try Qatchr.

Credit size

Credit size

If you work with credit for your customers, there are two essential concepts you need to know: credit periods and credit sizes.

In this section, we focus on credit sizes - and how you as a company and creditor actively work with this.

When we talk about credit size, we often also talk about credit max or credit limit - it basically means the same thing: the amount a debtor can trade on credit for.

Why is credit size important?

Many companies provide credit, but not all of them actively work with credit sizes - and that's a shame.

Because all credit, whether it's debt or an invoice with a due date in the future, is always associated with a certain risk. A risk that includes the possibility that a debtor or borrower will not pay their installments on time - or not pay them at all if, for example, a debtor goes bankrupt, dies or similar.

Therefore, it is important to actively work with credit sizes to minimize your risk of loss.

What are the credit size requirements?

Basically, it is the company (creditor) itself that determines the credit size - and thus how much credit the company wants to give.

In other words, the credit size can be anything from a cash payment (0 kroner in credit size) to unlimited amounts.

Credit size as a sales and competitive parameter

Many companies are reluctant to give too much credit - and with good reason.

Because credit has an inherent risk that the debtor will not pay its outstanding debt to the creditor - and the creditor will experience losses.

But many industries use credit sizes as a sales and competitive parameter. For example, in the food industry, many restaurants and cafés can buy on credit for, say, 30 days - giving them the opportunity to sell the purchased ingredients and receive payment for them before they have to be settled with the supplier.

In other words, in these industries, credit and the amount of credit is an important parameter for the customer - and thus a sales and competitive parameter for the company.

Determining credit size

Determining how much credit a customer should have can be a difficult discipline - but is nevertheless an essential part of active credit management.

Because no two customers are the same, and neither are their credit needs.

The credit should be determined based on factors such as external accounts, any previously known payment history and whether the customer is registered as a bad payer in a debt register.

For example, new customers may have a smaller credit size, while old customers with a known good payment history can build up a larger credit size.

There are many possibilities - the important thing is that you actively manage your customers' credit size - and if necessary change it if their circumstances change.

Get help determining your credit sizes

Hos Qatchr har vi specialiseret os i at udvikle en online platform, der leverer kreditoplysninger, som kan indgå i din kreditvurdering af virksomheder og privatpersoner.

Our online platform makes it possible to credit assess customers, both individually and continuously, and thus have an active tool in your credit policy.

Our tool provides recommendations for credit sizes and credit tenure, so the decision doesn't have to be yours alone.

Our tool can't avoid bad payers for you - but we can help you minimize them.

Contact us today if you want to learn more about Qatchr.

Credit management

Credit management

Credit management is a broad topic and can even be so large and comprehensive that some companies choose to dedicate staff to solely handle the company's credit management.

Credit management, also known as accounts receivable management, is the process of managing credit to customers.

Credit management is based on the company's credit policies - and the more detailed the company's credit policies are, the better credit can be managed.

The vast majority of companies have little, if any, credit management - and may have only a brief credit policy.

How credit management works

Credit management can take many forms and varies from industry to industry and company to company. For example, banks and lenders have employees to handle corporate credit management, while few small businesses have a credit policy at all.

Credit management basically works on the basis of the company's credit policy and helps to control and maintain it.

A simple credit management in a company could for example be to manage and monitor its credits; credit times, credit sizes - but especially to make sure that the right customers have the right credit sizes and credit times.

If the company has liquidity challenges, tighter credit management is more important than if the company has high liquidity.

A large part of credit management is based on understanding the individual customer; knowing their payment history, if any, knowing their public accounts - and possibly performing a credit assessment of the customer. All to ensure that the customer does not get too much credit or too long a credit period.

Monitoring can also be built into credit management so that the customer is continuously monitored - and interesting facts about the company's status, financial situation, owners and the like can be followed. This monitored information can then be updated on the customer - and thus change or update which credits the company wants to grant the customer.

The purpose of credit management

The purpose of credit management is to minimize losses on debtors and customers.

All credit comes with a risk - a risk that the debtor dies, goes bankrupt or doesn't pay your invoices at all.

With effective credit management, you can reduce or even avoid bad debtors.

In practice, it's difficult, if not impossible, to avoid bad debtors, as many factors can change the debtor's financial situation. But all practice and theory shows that effective credit management will significantly minimize your losses.

Get help with credit management with Qatchr

Qatchr er et online værktøj til at indhente kreditoplysninger, som du kan bruge i din kreditvurdering af privatpersoner og kreditvurdering af virksomheder. Qatchr giver dig et indblik i dine kunders økonomiske situation og kan eksempelvis oplyse dig, om din kunde står opført i et gældsregister.

If so, you have the opportunity to use this knowledge actively in your credit management.

Contact us today if you're interested in learning more about how Qatchr can help you with your credit management.

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