In principle to all your insurable Buyers domiciled in the countries we have agreed (see the Schedule to your policy) unless certain selected buyers have been excluded from the policy. Similarly, you do not need to apply for cover for “small buyers” with whom you have outstandings below the contractually agreed Declaration Limit.

• Public buyers, e.g. the Federal Government, regional or municipal governments.

• Private individuals.

• Associated companies in which you hold, directly or indirectly, a majority interest.

• Receivables for the letting and leasing of real estate

• Value-added tax.

• Receivables with a payment term exceeding that specified in the Schedule to your policy.

We check the creditworthiness of the buyer you have asked us about and then send you a credit limit notification for each company you have requested. This tells you whether we will grant a credit limit and for what amount.

If we approve a credit limit, we will also monitor your buyer’s creditworthiness on an ongoing basis.

Then please request a credit limit for the company in the amount you need again at the latest after one year. If the outstandings from your buyer have dropped below the Declaration Limit in the meantime, of course you do not need to request a credit limit on them.

Then Allianz Trade may reduce the credit limit or withdraw cover entirely. Of course, receivables which were already covered continue to be insured.

We charge a credit rating fee once a year for each buyer and insurance year for the ongoing monitoring of their creditworthiness.

If we refuse a credit limit on a buyer, this fee is only charged once.

If your outstandings due from a buyer exceed the credit limit, please request an increase within the period set out in the General Conditions of Insurance (GCI).

If the buyer was already covered within your Discretionary Facility and the outstandings are now over the Discretionary Limit, please make sure to apply to have them included by making a first-time credit limit request.

If the total outstandings due from a buyer for whom a credit limit has been set by us fall below the Declaration Limit the receivables still continue to be insured.

You do not need to request credit limits for your “small buyers” with outstandings below the Declaration Limit.

• These buyers are nevertheless insured if you have agreed the option of a discretionary facility in your policy and the preconditions are fulfilled.

• You can see the details of how this is regulated in the special clause “discretionary facility pursuant to §3 GCI”.

If the credit limit you need lies within the discretionary facility specified in your policy, you can obtain cover on that buyer in the following cases:

• If your buyer has received deliveries of goods or you have provided services to them at least twice during the past 12 months and these have been paid on the originally agreed due date plus the notification period for overdues, or

• You have received a written credit report from a bank or a credit information agency on your buyer which is no older than 12 months justifying the amount of credit you wish to grant by specifying an appropriate maximum credit limit amount.

• Alternatively, if we agree, you can apply for a credit limit within the discretionary facility via the Online Service.

• In general, you may not have become aware of any information or circumstances during the past 12 months which would exclude the granting of credit. For credit limit amounts above the discretionary limit, a credit limit must always be requested from Allianz Trade. 

If we have refused to grant a credit limit or withdrawn cover, no cover within the discretionary facility can be given for the following 12 months unless this is explicitly allowed in the credit limit notification.

• Ask the credit information agency for a maximum credit amount.

• Here too, the credit report should not contain any inconsistencies.

• The upper limit of cover is always the discretionary limit.  

If and when the outstandings due from a “small buyer” exceed the discretionary limit, please promptly apply for a credit limit for them.

Yes, we will be happy to do a credit check on a “small buyer” too. Of course, we will then charge you a credit rating fee once a year. 

With the mass import function you can edit several credit limits at once. Please find more detailed information in the following guides:

 Guide to import - Cancel  

 Guide to import - Reduction

 Guide to import - Credit request

 Guide to import - Customer reference update

The company search can be done either with the company name and address, or with the internal customer number. You can also search for companies by the Commercial Register number, VAT number Germany or Credit Reform (Agency).

Please make a credit limit request within 30 days of the Declaration Limit being exceeded by the newly accrued receivables.

And by the way: under the clause “Cover for existing receivables” a credit limit is valid for all receivables which are no older than 30 days at the time the credit limit request is submitted, irrespective of the date of validity on the credit limit notification.

The best and quickest way is via our Online Service.  Our CustomerService will also be happy to help you.

• When you apply for inclusion of a buyer, you are asking us to set a credit limit on them.

• We check the buyer’s creditworthiness and you will then receive a credit limit notification.

• This credit limit notification contains the credit limit and, where appropriate, further information and specifications in connection with your cover.

For all your buyers for whom the obligation to offer all business for cover applies. (See Section 1 “Your obligation to offer all business for cover”).

Take the maximum level of outstandings you expect from the buyer. That way you can factor in a safety margin. If cover for prime costs (costs incurred for work in progress) or consignment stocks is included in your policy, please also take these order levels into account.

• Before you fill in the form, please check exactly who is your payer, i.e., who is liable to settle the outstanding receivable.

 • We can only assume credit limits for legally independent entities at their registered Head Office. Receivables due from legally dependent branches, sales offices or permanent business establishments are always insured via their parent company.

• When you decide the amount of the credit limit you wish to request, please remember that our indemnifications during one and the same insurance year are always limited to the level of the so-called Maximum Liability.

• Please make sure to complete your request in full. Remember that we can only begin a check on your enquired company when all the information necessary has reached us.

• Please do not forget to answer all the questions on your experience with your buyer’s payment behaviour, in order not to jeopardize any possible later indemnification.

It is specified in the Schedule to your policy and denotes the deadline after which any non-payment must be notified to us. The key factor for calculating the notification period for overdues is the due date you agree with your buyer on the invoice.

• Please report any insured receivable which is overdue to us immediately.

• If you know the reason for the payment delay (e.g. a disputed delivery) please give this. • You can make the report via our Online Service or use our form “Notification of an overdue account“.

• N.B.: Further receivables coming under insurance cover may be jeopardized.

Cover for receivables due from subsequent deliveries of goods or performance of services ends automatically as soon as the deadline for withdrawal of cover specified in the Schedule to your policy, usually 30 days later, is exceeded. New receivables can then no longer come under cover unless we have explicitly confirmed to you in our answer to your overdue report that cover will be maintained.

The exception: If the receivables which triggered your overdue report do not exceed the threshold for notifying overdues specified in the Schedule, you do not need to notify them and there is no deadline for withdrawal of cover. The amount of this threshold applies to each invoice.

• You do not need to notify overdues for these buyers.

• However, receivables due from the buyer in question for subsequent deliveries of goods or performance of services are no longer insured as soon as the deadline for withdrawal of cover specified in the Schedule is exceeded. This exclusion from cover will be maintained until all outstanding receivables have been paid and there is no further negative information on this buyer.

You are then putting your insurance cover in jeopardy.

Please read through the explanations on the form “Notification of an overdue account” carefully and answer all the questions in detail – otherwise we cannot process the information you give us.

If several accounts become overdue within a few days of each other other and you want to notify them together, just give the date, due date and the original payment term of the oldest invoice on the the form. In addition, also give the aggregate amount of all the overdue invoices (total outstanding amount).

We will send you a written comment on your report.

• If your buyer‘s economic situation justifies it, we may need information from you more frequently.

• When there is an elevated risk, we can see in this way whether receivables are still being paid or if we need to take precautions to deal with an event of loss.

• You only need to notify us of any payments received in the meantime at the deadlines stipulated in each case for notification.

No, we only need information about a payment which has been received in the meantime at the deadline we have given you in each case.

Instalment plans always need our consent.

• The agreement must be submitted to us in writing.

• You will then receive our response as soon as possible.

• When bills of exchange are prolonged beyond their original due date.

• When a bill is protested.

• When a cheque is not honoured.

• The exception: you do not need to notify under your discretionary facility.

Such circumstances may be, for instance:

• Your buyer’s payment behaviour gets significantly worse.

• Negative information on the buyer’s financial situation becomes known to you.

• Cheques and bills of exchange are not honoured for lack of funds.

• Bills of exchange are prolonged beyond their original due date.

• Direct debits are not honoured for lack of funds.

• You only continue to deliver goods or perform services against advance or cash payment for reasons of your buyer’s creditworthiness.

• You engage a lawyer or a debt collection agency to collect the receivables or assert your claim in court.

• Insolvency is imminent or has occurred.

We calculate your premium on the basis of your outstanding. Your cover and your claim to indemnification can only be guaranteed if we receive timely notification.

• We have specified a day for notification in the Schedule to your policy.

• Please retain the documentation after reporting for 12 months.

• The declaration can be made easily via our Online Service If you are not yet a user, we will send you a form for the declaration without needing to be asked.

• Either until the account is paid or until an event of loss occurs (see also Section 9 Notification of loss).

• Once a year, at the latest two months before the end of the insurance year.

• You should then declare the turnover of the last completed business year.

• For all your buyers, declare the outstandings/turnover net of VAT.

• With premium on outstandings, you only need to declare up to the maximum insured amount of the outstandings for calculating your premium.

• N:B: Bills of exchange are only deemed to be paid when they are honoured!

• If your policy includes extra cover options such as cover for work in progress, premium must also be paid on this.

• Please make sure when making the declaration of outstandings/turnover to observe the type of premium calculation you have agreed as specified in the note to the appropriate clause.

• If associated companies are co-insured under your policy, their outstandings/turnover must also be included in your declaration – depending on what you have agreed, either together with you in one list or in a separate list.

• Save credit rating fees and check to see which credit limits you no longer need in the following insurance year. Then ask us to delete them or do it yourself easily via our Online Service. Of course, we will remind you in good time about this in writing again before the insurance year ends.

With the integrated collection service you get all the services which your debtor management entails from one provider. Allianz Trade Collections is a specialist and takes care of the professional collection of your outstandings.

You need to sign a framework collection contract as a top-up to your insurance policy.

• If your commercial reminder (with deadline) gets no response.

• Be sure to comply with the deadline for passing on an account for collection you have agreed with us.

• The quickest and simplest way is via our Online Service. Alternatively, you can use the following pre-printed forms:

• Collection order: for non-litigated German and foreign debts (if these involve several invoices, please bundle them in one order).

• Monitoring order: for litigated debts in Germany.

• Please always remember to submit the required documentation!

Please inform Allianz Trade in every case and immediately if any contact is made (e.g. payments received, information of any kind).

One of our great strengths is our cooperation with the debt collection agencies. These are domiciled in all the major export countries. That means that they can speak to the debtor in their own language, and the company concerned knows all the ins and outs of local business customs.

Yes, and please do it at the latest by the deadline specified in the Schedule to your policy.

Exceptions:

• Insolvency proceedings have already been filed for, opened or rejected by the court for lack of assets.

• All the buyer’s creditors generally have agreed to an out-of-court composition (voluntary liquidation or quota settlement).

• The execution of a judgement title against the buyer’s assets has failed to satisfy the debt completely.

You can pass on both insured and uninsured receivables for collection, e.g. also receivables due from a debtor in a country which you have not insured.

No: once you have placed the order with Allianz Trade Collections, please refrain from taking any further action yourself. It may nevertheless happen that the debtor gets in touch with you directly, e.g. with a suggestion for payment. If that happens, please under all circumstances inform us immediately, we will then negotiate on your behalf. You must also inform us immediately of any payments you may receive directly. Otherwise it may happen that we take action which incurs costs, but is not necessary.

We charge a success fee for all payments which the debtor makes following our intervention. If the collection activities are unsuccessful, you only need to pay a small handling fee. In the case of disputed accounts, we will discuss any further action with you.

The success fee will be set off against any payments received by Allianz Trade Collections or the cooperating attorneys.

• Submit a loss notification as quickly as possible – via our Online Service or using the relevant form. Please send us the documentation listed there when you do this.

• Secure your claims against the customer. Register your receivables in the insolvency proceedings. Please consult with us if you assert your retention of title rights or offer your customer an arrangement to let him pay in instalments.

• Important: you lose your right to receive indemnification if you do not notify the non-payment of your receivables to Allianz Trade within six months after learning of the occurrence of an event of loss.

• The collection procedure you have agreed to regulates when an event of loss is deemed to have occurred (Protracted Default). Please see the Schedule to your policy for details.

• Insolvency proceedings have been opened.

• The court has rejected the opening of insolvency proceedingsm for lack of assets.

• The insolvency court has formally noted that a plan for the repayment of creditors in a personal insolvency has beenm accepted.

• All the buyer’s creditors generally have agreed to a composition or out-of-court settlement (voluntary liquidation or quota settlement).

• The execution of a judgement title in respect of the buyer’s assets has failed to satisfy the debt in whole.

All circumstances which are substantially equivalent to any of the above under the legal system of the country concerned are valid in all insurable countries.

IMPORTANT: the event of loss must have occurred during the Policy Period!