Cowboy clients in TradePro’s sights

TradePro chief executive David Bloom said: "This phenomenon of the 'unprofessional customer' is having a serious impact on the ability of small tradesmen to conduct their businesses and the feedback from our customers is that the problem will only get worse before it gets better."

Research carried out by Eagle Star last year found that more than half (59%) of tradesmen had experienced problems with unpaid accounts. Of these, almost a third were owed more than £5,000, while 14% said they were due in excess of £20,000 and 7% of respondents were waiting on unpaid amounts of more than £50,000.

"It is vital that small tradesmen are offered the same support and access to professional services that any bona fide, reputable business would expect. But until now, this sort of help has not been available. We decided to offer TradePro cardholders a suite of services designed to help them get their money," Bloom said.

TradePro's debt recovery services include a free advice line, a free final demand service and a debt recovery service.

"The final demand service entails a formal letter of final demand being sent out by us to the customer. Statistically, about 70% of people pay up after receiving a final demand letter.

"However, if this doesn't work then our cardholders can use our debt recovery service, which costs £53 but is on a no win-no fee basis. On average though, the £53 represents about 1% of the outstanding debt owed to cardholders. Other debt recovery services charge between 10% and 20%," Bloom said.

Finally, if this still doesn't get the customer to cough up, then TradePro has its own legal team that can help.