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British businesses are considered bad payers
British businesses are considered to be among the worst payers in Europe and only the Italians are thought worse, a new survey suggests. According to a recent research, conducted for Atradius by market researcher Psychonomics, 42% of European companies believe that payment practices in the UK are either ‘poor’ or ‘average’.
Only Italy has a lower rating with 64% of European businesses saying the country was ‘poor’ or ‘average’ with payments. Also, 33% of European businesses say they experience payment delays from British customers ‘very frequently’ or ‘rather frequently’. Again only Italy scored a worse rating, with 45% of businesses saying they experience delays from Italians ‘very frequently’ or ‘rather frequently’. British firms take an average of 63 days to settle their debts and even companies in the UK think they are bad payers. Will Clark, regional director for Altradius, said: “Poor payment practices seem to be a cultural issue for British businesses where the domestic view is consistent with international perception.
“If UK firms want better cash flow they need to improve their entire payment practices - that means chasing up their customers and settling their own bills more quickly.”
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