Trade credit insurance quotes from licensed Australian brokers

What trade credit insurance covers

The policy responds when a customer fails to pay for goods or services you have supplied on credit terms. Cover is normally arranged across the whole ledger rather than for single customers, since insurers want the spread of good accounts alongside the risky ones.

• Customer insolvency, including administration and liquidation
• Protracted default, where the customer simply does not pay within a defined period
• Whole of turnover cover across your ledger, or key accounts on some policies
• Credit limits set by the insurer on each buyer, which you can rely on when granting terms
• Export receivables and political risk on some policies
• Collections support, since the insurer wants the debt recovered too

The credit intelligence is half the value

To set a limit on a buyer, the insurer researches them. That research is available to you before you ship, which is a practical credit control tool rather than just an insurance mechanism. If an insurer reduces or withdraws a limit on one of your customers, that is a signal worth acting on. Businesses using trade credit cover well tend to treat the limits as a live risk feed and adjust terms accordingly, rather than only thinking about the policy when a debt goes bad.

How it affects your funding

Insured receivables are a stronger asset in the eyes of a financier. Businesses using invoice finance or a debtor facility often find that credit insurance improves the advance rate or the terms available, because the bank's exposure to a customer default is reduced. If you are negotiating a facility, it is worth raising the policy with the lender. For exporters it can also make the difference between offering open account terms and insisting on letters of credit, which is often a competitive advantage.

What underwriters look at

Your turnover and terms of trade come first, then the shape of the ledger: how concentrated it is, which industries your customers sit in, and how many buyers you have. Bad debt history over the past three to five years matters, as do your own credit control processes. Insurers will want to see that you check credit before granting terms, chase arrears consistently and stop supply when accounts go far enough past due. Policies carry conditions around those processes, so they need to be real rather than aspirational.