In Greece, credit policy often comes down to the three “U’s”.

The so called “koutourou” or… “whatever happens” approach.

When the customer pays on time:
“Everything is fine.”

When payments start slowing down:
“It’s just a temporary cash-flow issue.”

When the overdue balance reaches 150 days:
“I spoke to him. He’ll sort it out.”

When payments stop altogether:
“We didn’t see it coming.”

That is not a credit policy.

It is optimism on credit.

And the problem is not that, at some point, a customer may fail to pay.

The real problem is that, until then, nobody inside the company knows exactly what should have been done.

What is the credit limit?

When do we stop further deliveries?

When do we review the customer’s exposure?

Who makes the decision?

Who needs to be informed?

And, most importantly:

What do we do before a delay becomes a bad debt?

A sound credit policy is not an Excel file sitting in a drawer.

It is a common set of rules, understood and accepted by management, sales, finance and credit control.

Clear limits.

Clear procedures.

Clear responsibilities.

Early warning signals.

And decisions made before the loss occurs — not afterwards, when everyone is trying to understand what went wrong.

Because the purpose of a good credit policy is not to predict exactly who will fail.

It is to make sure that a payment delay does not become a major problem simply because nobody acted early enough.

Credit needs discipline.
Not “whatever happens”.