Credit control and collections conversations: calls, payment plans and late payment rights (UK and US examples)
For credit controllers, accounts receivable clerks and bookkeepers who phone customers about overdue invoices. Prerequisite: 'Accounts receivable and collections', which covers aged receivables, written reminders, disputes and DSO. This course is the conversation itself: preparing a collections call, getting a specific commitment or surfacing a dispute, agreeing a payment plan within your authority, and the UK rules on statutory interest and fixed compensation for late business-to-business payments (GOV.UK guidance). As a US example it covers the federal limits on consumer debt collectors in the CFPB's Regulation F, which matter when consumer debts go to an agency. Other countries and consumer debts in the UK follow different rules. Rates and rules are as published when this course was written; check the current guidance. This course is not legal advice and doesn't qualify you to give it: legal action, agency referrals and anything unusual go to your credit manager or finance director.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Length
- About 96 minutes
- Contents
- 5 lessons · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 10 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Prepare for a collections call: confirm the debt is valid and undisputed, who you're calling, the account history and your authority
- Run a collections conversation that secures a specific commitment or surfaces a dispute, and record it accurately
- Agree a payment plan within your authority and confirm it in writing
- Calculate UK statutory interest and fixed compensation on a late business-to-business invoice
- Apply US consumer debt collection limits on call times, call frequency and third parties when consumer debt goes to a collector
Course outline
- 1.Preparing for a collections call: the debt, the contact, the history and your authorityLesson · 16 min
- 2.Running a collections conversation that secures a specific commitment or surfaces a disputeLesson · 20 min
- 3.Agreeing a payment plan within your authority and confirming it in writingLesson · 16 min
- 4.Calculating UK statutory interest and fixed compensation on a late business-to-business invoiceLesson · 20 min
- 5.Applying US consumer debt collection limits on call times, frequency and third partiesLesson · 14 min
- 6.Credit control and collections conversations: calls, payment plans and late payment rights (UK and US examples): knowledge checkKnowledge check · 15 questions
- 7.Credit control and collections conversations: calls, payment plans and late payment rights (UK and US examples): practical exerciseKnowledge check · 1 question
- 8.Final exam10 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
- GOV.UK: Late commercial payments: charging interest and debt recovery (when a payment is late, statutory interest, fixed debt recovery costs) (UK)
- GOV.UK: Make a court claim for money (county court claims, mediation) (UK)
- Bank of England: Interest rates and Bank Rate (current Bank Rate) (UK)
- Office of the Small Business Commissioner: UK sets global standard for small business payment rights (2 July 2026; late payments Bill before Parliament) (UK)
- CFPB: Regulation F, 12 CFR 1006.2 Definitions (debt, debt collector and exclusions) (US federal)
- CFPB: Regulation F, 12 CFR 1006.6 Communications in connection with debt collection (US federal)
- CFPB: Regulation F, 12 CFR 1006.14 Harassing, oppressive, or abusive conduct (call frequency) (US federal)
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