No win no fee debt recovery

What no win no fee means in practice

In debt recovery, no win no fee — also called commission-only or contingency collection — means the agency charges you nothing unless it recovers money from the debtor. There are no upfront fees, no account placement fees, and no retainer. The agency's fee is a percentage of what is actually collected and paid to you. If nothing is recovered, nothing is owed.

This is the industry-standard model for commercial debt collection in Australia, and it exists because it aligns incentives cleanly. The agency only succeeds financially when you do. There is no way to dress up a poor outcome or pad a bill. The fee is directly proportional to the result.

How commission is calculated

Commission is applied to the gross amount recovered — the money actually collected from the debtor. When the agency collects a payment, it deducts its commission and remits the balance to you. If your commission rate is 15% and the agency collects $8,000, you receive $6,800. The agency retains $1,200. You never write a cheque to the agency.

Commission rates for commercial debt in Australia typically range from 10% to 25%, depending on the age of the debt and the complexity of recovery. Fresh debts attract lower rates; older or harder-to-locate debts attract higher rates to reflect the additional work.

Partial recovery

Commission applies only to what is actually recovered. If your debt is $30,000 and the debtor can only pay $15,000 — either because they are insolvent or because a negotiated settlement is the best available outcome — commission is calculated on $15,000. You receive the balance after the agency's deduction. There is no fee on the uncollected portion, and no charge for the work done attempting to recover it.

This is an important feature of the no-win-no-fee model: the agency bears the cost of unsuccessful collection attempts. You are only ever paying a share of what you actually get back.

Why it is the industry standard

The commission model works because it removes the creditor's financial risk entirely. You do not need to budget for collection costs, write a cheque upfront, or worry about paying for a poor outcome. The agency's incentive is to collect as much as possible, as quickly as possible. For most businesses — particularly those referring debts occasionally rather than at volume — this is the clearest, most risk-free way to recover what they are owed.

Merion operates on a pure commission-only basis across all commercial accounts. See our fee structure for current commission rates, or request a free debt appraisal to get started.