Prague, Nov 27 (CTK) – A total of 42 percent of Czech debtors intentionally fail to pay for goods and services in time, and Czechs thus rank among the least honest customers in Europe, according to a survey on payment discipline carried out by EOS KSI, an international debt collection agency.
Nearly a fifth of Czech consumers fail to provide payments for goods and services in time, the poll said.
Customers in the Czech Republic take the average of 14 days to settle their outstanding debts.
The number of customers avoiding responsibility for their debts is increasing, as the share of deliberate debtors was 15 percent in 2015, while it was a fifth in 2016, EOS KSI executive Vladimir Vachel said.
People most often explain their actions by saying they have financial problems when the money is due (67 percent) and a bad memory (40 percent).
A total of 47 percent of debtors struggle with a serious long-term lack of finances.
A total of 11 percent of Czech companies do not have the process of debt collection standardised, Vachel said.
EOS group conducted the poll among 3,200 companies in 16 European countries.