Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,152, Collecting Debt.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1,152.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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On this episode we're going to listen to a dialogue between Ken and Marjorie about getting money back from someone you lent it to.
Let's get started.
Look at this list of customers who still owe us money.
We started doing it because some of our best customers didn't have ready cash.
They're good for it.
I know they'll eventually pay their outstanding debt.
But what are we supposed to do in the meantime?
We need that cash to buy stock.
We can call in the debt and set a deadline for repayment.
We can give those who are really hard up an extension on a case-by-case basis.
What if they still don't pay?
We'd have to turn it over to a collection agency.
We'd only get 40 cents on the dollar.
But we'll have to close our doors if we don't collect.
Using a collection agency would be a last resort.
I'll call each of our major debtors and have a talk with them.
I'm sure they'll come through.
I hope you're right, or we will be the ones asking for credit.
This episode is called collecting debt, D-E-B-T.
Notice the B is silent when we pronounce the word.
Debt is money that you owe someone else, money that someone else gave you to use temporarily, but that you have to give back to that person.
To collect debt means to get the money back from someone who doesn't want to pay you back or perhaps is slow in paying you back.
Ken begins our dialogue by saying look at this list of customers who still owe us money.
To owe O-W-E, someone is to be expected, and in fact required, to pay someone something or to do something for someone else.
If you owe someone money, you have to give that money back to someone.
The idea usually with owe is that the other person has done something for you or, in the case of a debt, giving you money.
Ken continues, how is this business supposed to survive if we keep extending credit?
To extend E-X-T-E-N-D credit C-R-E-D-I-T means to allow someone to buy something now and pay for it later.
You're probably familiar with the term credit card.
A credit card is an account, an agreement, basically you have with a bank, or what we would call financial institution, that allows you to buy things now and pay for them later.
Individual stores can also extend credit to their customers.
They can allow you to buy things and then pay for it later.
This store that Ken and Marjorie have extends credit to its customers, but many of the customers still owe them money.
Marjorie says...
We started doing it, that is, extending credit, because some of our best customers didn't have ready cash.
Ready, R-E-A-D-Y, cash, C-A-S-H, is money that you can spend right now.
If a business has ready cash, it can go out and buy something and pay for it right away.
It has money available.
If a business doesn't have ready cash well, then it doesn't have the money in its bank account to buy the things it needs to buy.
Marjorie says that the best customers are are good for it.
The expression to be good for it means to be trustworthy, to be reliable.
Most importantly, to be able to pay back money that you owe.
If someone says to you, give me $10, I'm good for it.
That person is saying to you, I will pay you back later.
I am a responsible person.
I have enough money.
I just don't have that money with me right now.
That's sometimes true and sometimes isn't.
If you've ever lent that is, given money to someone with the expectation that person will give it back to you you probably know that isn't always the case.
When someone says he's good for it, he isn't always good for it.
Anyway, Ken continues, I know they'll eventually, in time in the future, pay their outstanding debt.
But what are we supposed to do in the meantime?
Outstanding O-U-T-S-T-A-N-D-I-N-G debt is money that hasn't been paid on time.
It's debt that you owe someone that is, we could say, overdue.
It's late.
In the meantime means while we are waiting for the people to pay us back.
Ken is asking what he and Marjorie and their business should do while they are waiting for these customers to pay the money they owe back to the business.
Ken explains, we need that cash, that money, to buy stock.
Stock, S-T-O-C-K, here probably means the things that the store buys.
Stock can also refer to partial ownership you have in a company, something you would buy on what we call a stock market.
But here, stock refers to physical goods, things that a store sells.
Marjorie says, we can call in the debt and set a deadline for payment.
To call in a debt means to demand that the person who owes you money pay you immediately or as soon as possible.
Usually, calling in a debt means requiring someone to pay money before the scheduled time or before you had originally agreed to have them pay it.
When you borrow a large amount of money from someone, often you pay that money back in cash payments or installments.
So if you borrow a thousand dollars, you may pay a hundred dollars this month, a hundred dollars next month, a hundred dollars the month after that, and so forth.
If however, you miss one of those payments you're late in paying the monthly payment a bank or a store may call in your debt.
They may require you to pay it all back now because you missed a payment.
Or they may set a deadline for repayment.
A deadline is a date by which you have to do something.
Repayment of a debt means giving all of the money back to the person who loaned you the money.
Marjorie says, If someone is hard up, That person is in a difficult situation, especially a financial situation.
Someone who doesn't have a lot of money, who perhaps lost his job, might be hard up, meaning he doesn't have very much money.
An extension, E-X-T-E-N-S-I-O-N, is additional time, in this case, to pay back your loan.
Sometimes a bank or a business, instead of calling in your debt, will give you more time to pay it.
They will give you an extension.
Marjorie says that she and Ken can do this with their customers on a case-by-case basis.
A case-by-case basis would mean looking at the details of each person or each situation and making a decision on that information, not on
Just one rule for everyone.
Doing anything case by case means you don't apply one rule or one regulation to everyone.
You look at the individual circumstances of each person.
Ken says, We'd have to turn it over to a collection agency.
If someone doesn't pay you your money, especially if you're a business, you may go to another company who will try to get that money back for you.
That company is called a collection agency, A-G-E-N-C-Y.
Now, the problem with a collection agency is that the collection agency will only give you part of the money that they collect back to you.
Because, of course, the collection agency has to make money too.
Ken says that they will only get 40 cents on the dollar.
That means the collection agency will only give them back 40 of every dollar that they get back from the person who owes the company money.
Ken says we'll have to close our doors if we don't collect.
The expression to close your doors here means to close your business, to go out of business.
Marjorie says, using a collection agency would be a last resort.
A last resort is a choice or option that is the least favorable, the one that you least want to do.
But if you don't have any other choice, any other option, then you will do that.
For example...
Maybe you've lost your job and you don't have any money and you own a car.
You don't want to sell your car.
But as a last resort, if you really need money to say, buy food, you may sell your car.
That's an example of a last resort.
Marjorie continues, I'll call each of our major debtors and have a talk with them.
Debtors, D-E-B-T-O-R-S, are people who owe you money, people who have debt that they have to pay back to you.
Marjorie says, I'm sure they'll, meaning these debtors, they'll come through.
The phrasal verb to come through means to eventually do what you promise to do, to eventually do what you are expected to do.
It means to perform as you are expected to perform.
Ken says, I hope you're right. or we will be the ones asking for credit.
Meaning, if these debtors don't come through, Marjorie and Ken will have to go out asking for credit from the businesses they buy things from.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Look at this list of customers who still owe us money.
How is this business supposed to survive if we keep extending credit?
I know they'll eventually pay their outstanding debt, but what are we supposed to do in the meantime?
We need that cash to buy stock.
We can call in the debt and set a deadline for repayment.
We can give those who are really hard up an extension on a case-by-case basis.
What if they still don't pay?
We'd have to turn it over to a collection agency.
We'd only get 40 cents on the dollar, but we'll have to close our doors if we don't collect.
Using a collection agency would be a last resort.
I'll call each of our major debtors and have a talk with them.
I'm sure they'll come through.
I hope you're right, or we will be the ones asking for credit.
Here at ESL Podcast, we certainly owe a debt of gratitude of thanks to our wonderful scriptwriter, Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2015 by the Center for Educational Development.
