Your receivables are probably your largest uninsured asset. We insure them.
Trade credit insurance protects your company against buyer insolvency and protracted default — domestically and across borders. Underwritten by career credit analysts with three decades of financial statement discipline, serving the U.S. mainland, Puerto Rico and the Latin American trade corridor from offices in Raleigh, San Juan and Santo Domingo.
What is trade credit insurance?
Trade credit insurance (also called accounts receivable insurance, bad debt insurance or export credit insurance) is a policy that pays your company when a customer that bought on credit terms cannot or will not pay — usually because of insolvency or protracted default. Policies typically indemnify 85–95% of each covered invoice.
A single significant buyer failure can erase a year of margin. If your company operates on an 8% net margin and writes off a $400,000 receivable, you must generate $5 million in replacement sales just to recover the lost profit. Trade credit insurance converts that open, concentrated, uninsured exposure into a predictable premium expense — and in doing so it typically improves your borrowing base, supports larger credit lines to good customers, and disciplines your own credit decisions with insurer intelligence on tens of millions of buyers worldwide.
Read the complete guide: What is trade credit insurance and how does it work?
Policy types we underwrite
Whole Turnover
Insures your entire eligible receivables portfolio. Best pricing per dollar of exposure and the structure lenders prefer for borrowing-base support.
How whole turnover works →Multi-Buyer
A schedule of insured buyers under one policy — broader than key-account, more selective than whole turnover. The classic export structure and the form most U.S. carriers write.
Multi-buyer policies →Key Account / Named Buyer
Covers only your largest or riskiest buyers — the accounts whose failure would actually hurt. Efficient where a handful of names dominate the ledger.
Key account structures →Single Buyer
One policy, one obligor. Used for a dominant customer, a large contract, or a new relationship in a market you do not yet know.
Single buyer coverage →Excess of Loss & Captive Top-Up
You retain routine credit losses; the policy responds above a meaningful aggregate deductible. Catastrophe protection for firms with strong internal credit functions.
Excess of loss explained →Export Credit & Political Risk
Commercial perils plus currency inconvertibility, transfer restriction, import/export license cancellation and public buyer default for foreign receivables.
Export credit coverage →Lender & Factor Structures
Loss payee endorsements, assignments and bank-beneficiary policies that expand receivables-based borrowing capacity and reduce lender ineligibles.
TCI and your borrowing base →Industries and situations we serve
Trade credit insurance fits any company selling business-to-business on open account. Our underwriting appetite is broad, with particular depth in:
- Manufacturers and distributors with buyer concentration — where the top five accounts exceed 30–40% of receivables.
- Exporters and importers in the U.S.–Mexico–CAFTA-DR nearshoring corridor selling to buyers without public credit ratings.
- Commodity, food and agricultural traders with thin margins and large single-shipment exposures.
- Staffing, logistics and service firms whose payroll runs ahead of collections.
- Companies borrowing against receivables whose lenders demand credit enhancement, fewer ineligibles or foreign-account eligibility.
- Sellers anywhere in the world — our service is global — with our forté in the United States, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Latin America, where we underwrite, document and service claims bilingually: native, not translated.
How underwriting works, start to finish
Credit insurance is underwritten, not sold off a rate card. The process is straightforward:
1. Application
Our application collects your sales history, loss experience, receivables aging, buyer spread and principal accounts. Most applicants complete it in under an hour with an aged receivables report at hand. Start here.
2. Buyer underwriting
Your principal buyers — the names that drive the exposure — are underwritten before terms issue. We analyze buyer financial condition with the same balance sheet, liquidity, leverage and cash flow discipline that governs surety underwriting, supplemented by carrier databases covering payment behavior on millions of obligors. Limits on the remaining smaller accounts are established after binding, through individual limit requests or under your discretionary credit limit.
3. Terms and binding
You receive a quotation stating the premium rate, the approved credit limits on your principal buyers, the indemnity percentage, discretionary limit (if granted), deductibles and policy conditions. Premium is typically structured as a minimum-and-deposit, adjusted against the sales you declare during the year. On acceptance the policy binds and coverage attaches to shipments or invoices from the effective date.
4. Ongoing limit management and claims
Limits are living instruments: new buyers are added, existing limits increase as buyers grow, and the portfolio is monitored continuously against the carrier’s live payment intelligence. You declare sales on the policy’s reporting schedule and observe its credit management conditions. When a covered loss occurs, claims are documented with the invoice, proof of delivery and the buyer file, and paid after the policy waiting period. See exactly how claims are paid.
Frequently asked questions
What does trade credit insurance cover?
Non-payment of covered invoices caused by buyer insolvency (bankruptcy, receivership, liquidation, composition with creditors) or protracted default — extended non-payment of an undisputed debt past the policy waiting period. Export policies can add political risk perils. Disputed invoices are not covered until the dispute is resolved in your favor.
How much does it cost?
Most whole turnover programs price between 0.10% and 0.44% of insured sales, driven by loss history, buyer quality, spread of risk, terms of sale and country mix. Full pricing guide.
Who needs it?
Any B2B seller on open account — especially with buyer concentration, receivables-based borrowing, thin margins, or export growth. Complete overview.
Put a shield on the ledger.
Submit the application with your most recent aged receivables and two years of financial statements. Indications on straightforward risks are typically available within days.
Request a Quotation