Trade credit insurance, Malaysia
Get paid, even when your customer doesn’t.
The money your customers owe you is 30 to 40% of everything your business owns. It’s probably the only thing you haven’t insured.
| You insure the building. | ✓ Insured |
| You insure the stock. | ✓ Insured |
| You insure the machines. | ✓ Insured |
| RM 400,000 owed on 60-day terms | ✕ Not insured |
Then you ship RM 400,000 of goods on 60-day terms to a customer whose accounts you last looked at in 2019.
What one bad debt really costs
If a customer owes you RM 500,000 and never pays, you haven’t lost RM 500,000.
You’ve lost the profit on it. To earn that back, you need to sell this much more:
That’s the real number. Most finance directors have never done that sum on their own book.
- One or two customers make up a big chunk of your sales
- A buyer is asking for longer terms to give you the order
- There’s a big new customer you want, but can’t properly check
- You export, so you’re carrying country risk as well as customer risk
- You’ve been burned before, or nearly were
What you get
You get paid when they don’t
If a customer goes bust, or just refuses to pay, you get up to 90% of what you’re owed. The loss stops being yours.
You stop chasing money
Chasing a bad payer becomes someone else’s job. Professional collectors go after the debt first, in Malaysia or overseas. If they can’t get it, the claim gets paid.
You see trouble coming
Every customer you trade with gets checked before cover starts, and watched while the policy runs. You find out a customer is going bad while you can still stop shipping, not when the cheque bounces.
You can say yes to bigger orders
Right now you turn business away because the buyer feels too risky. With cover, you can give longer terms, take on bigger customers, and sell into new countries.
Your bank lends you more
Banks usually lend more against insured invoices. If you use invoice financing or factoring, better terms can pay for a good chunk of the premium. Worth asking your banker.
You free up cash
Smaller bad-debt reserves means money back in the business.
What it costs
Roughly 0.3% of your sales.
Sometimes less, sometimes more. It depends on your industry, your payment terms, your customers, and whether you’ve had bad debts before. Here’s the sum that matters.
Most policies pay for themselves through the sales you couldn’t write before, not through claims.
Get a Free Quote →| Annual credit sales | RM 20,000,000 |
| Premium at 0.3% | RM 60,000 |
| Extra sales cover lets you write (5%) | RM 1,000,000 |
| Extra gross profit at 15% margin | RM 150,000 |
| Premium on the extra sales | RM 3,000 |
| Ahead before anyone makes a claim | RM 87,000 |
Example only. Your price depends on your business.
Who this is for
✓ For you if
Businesses selling to other businesses on credit terms: 30, 60, 90 days. Distributors, traders, wholesalers, manufacturers, service companies. You need sales of about RM 5 million or more.
✕ Not for you if
You get paid cash, upfront, or by letter of credit: you’ve already passed the risk on. And if sales are well under RM 5 million, tell me and I’ll point you somewhere more useful.
Free assessment and indicative pricing
Four questions about your business, plus how to reach you. I’ll take it from there.
Most people put this off because they assume getting a number out of an insurer means weeks of paperwork. It doesn’t. Four answers is enough for me to start.
To start, I need:
- Roughly how much you expect to sell on credit over the next 12 months
- What your business does
- Your usual payment terms
- Whether you’ve written off bad debt in the last three years
Then I’ll get in touch to collect a list of your top 5 to 10 customers: name, address, and the credit limit you’d want on each. That list is what the underwriter actually prices against, so nothing moves without it. A short call or a single email is usually enough.
From there you’ll have an indicative price within a few days, and a view on which of your customers are insurable and which are worth watching.
Free. No obligation. If cover doesn’t suit your business, I’ll tell you that instead of selling you something.
Straight answers
Do I have to cover all my customers?
Usually yes. Cover is written across your whole book, not just the one customer worrying you. Insurers won’t take only the risks you’ve already spotted. There are different structures for different situations, so tell me yours.
Do I still have to chase the customer myself?
No. Collectors go after it first. If they don’t get paid within the agreed waiting time, the claim is paid.
How much do I get back?
Usually up to 90% of what you’re owed.
What if they can’t pay because of something in their country?
That’s covered too. War, a government cancelling a contract, import or export bans, rules that stop money leaving the country. Exporters often only think about the customer, not the country.
My best customers have paid me for fifteen years. Why insure them?
Because those are the ones that hurt. Nobody reviews them. Limits creep up. The relationship replaces the credit check. And even strong companies get caught by a bad cycle. Keeping track of every customer’s financial health properly costs real money, and that’s what you’re buying.
About InsureWise
Alan Teong, Founder, InsureWise Enterprise
InsureWise Enterprise is a general insurance agency for Malaysian SMEs. I’m Alan Teong, the founder. I’ve been an insurance agent since 2014.
InsureWise runs as your company’s insurance department. I review what you already have before recommending anything, track every renewal and follow claims through with the insurer until they’re paid.
Clients have had more than RM1,000,000 in claims paid.