Recap from this infographic, the Safest Road to Business Growth:

Potential drawbacks of self-insuring with bad debt reserves:

1. May result in overly conservative limits that reduce potential revenue
2. Company bears burden and cost for interanl credit management resources
3. Ties up working capital and impacts capital allocation of the balance sheet
4. Typically does not protect from large and unexpected catstrophic loss
5. Creates reliance on often-unreliable third party data sources

Benefits of trade credit insurance:

1. Empowers companies to confidently grow sales without credit concerns
2. Guaranteed protection against non-payment or slow payment from customers covered by the policy
3. Enhances efficiency of a company's internal credit department with fast credit limit requests and ongoing buyer monitoring
4. Allows exporters to offer safe, open terms overseas
5. Expands a company's financing options by increasing its borrowing base with secure receivables