ABSTRACT
When a successful applicant passes the stage of credit sanctioning, he may take any one of a number of prepared routes before he becomes of no further interest to his creditor. From a creditor's point of view, the ideal route is a strict adherence to the norms established in the contract. A debtor who commits himself to paying eighteen monthly instalments will pay those instalments in eighteen months without any intervention from the creditor. The most common path, however, combines eventual repayment with minor forays into an enforcement career. Every time a person receives a notice from a gas board, a rating authority or a commercial concern, he enters a carefully contrived system of social control. Most creditors expect that the majority of their agreements will go into default on at least one occasion and, at any single time, their enforcement will be directed at some 10 per cent of their customers.
