信用证作为一种国际支付方式，在国际贸易中被广泛应用。由于不相信合作方情况，买方担心预付款后，卖方不按合同要求发货；卖方也担心在发货或提交货运单据后买方不付款。因此很多初次合作的客户都选择用信用证作为支付方式，以银行作为买卖双方的保证人，代为收款交单，以银行信用代替商业信用。但是，做信用证的成本远比做T/T 来得高。客户银行会扣费，出口商银行会收取审单费和邮寄费，动辄数十美元，一个不慎，交单时没有按照信用证要求，产生不符点，又是50、60美元，有的甚至90美元。一张订单的利润可就大打折扣了。要想尽量避免信用证扣费，就得提醒十二分精神，认真核对信用证上的每一项条款，尽量做到0不符。以下是我个人的经验总结，希望能帮到正在为审证发愁的你们：
1、交货期和信用证有效时间
首先，收到信用证副本时，应首先注意交货期和信用证有效时间，看看自己与客户落实的生产期是否能赶得上信用证上的最迟装运期（Latest Date of Shipment），以免迟交货产生不符，然后记录下时间，及时催促订单生产、出货。在此，需要注意的是，不要以为货物赶在最迟装运期前装柜就可以避开不符点。因为信用证看的最迟装运期不是装柜时间，而是显示在提单上的上船日期（Shipped on board date)。这个日期一般都会比装柜时间晚个几天，而且还要看你出的是驳船提单还是大船提单，要是出大船提单，你最好预留多三五天。
2、信用证上的货物描述
信用证上，有的客户会显示货物的型号、数量、单价、升数配置等，这就要求我们在做单的时候按照信用证所示要求。但要注意的是，我们要检查清楚信用证上的型号名称、数量跟订单是否一致。若有不符，要和客户沟通修改，以免做单时候因为型号名称或出货数量的不一致产生不符点。
3、信用证上的文件要求和附加条款
这是审证时最费心思的部分，所有对文件的要求都显示在这两部分内容里面。在审证时，我们要逐条审核，不要漏掉任何文件。例如，“beneficiary's signed commercial invoice in octuplicate certifying merchandise to be of China origin”指的是受益人签名的发票，发票上需要标有certifying 后面的内容，一式八份。对于这部分内容，我们尤其要注意certifying, certificate 等字眼，因为这些都是要写做受益人证明，交给银行的。
另外，审证的时候，最好一边审，一边将信用证上要求显示在交单文件上的内容记录并整理下来，方便检查核对。
对于装船通知的制作，一定要看清楚是发给谁的，也就是说to 后面的内容，有时候通知对象会是保险公司，代理，或者开证人。 所以在做装船通知时，一定要“找对人”。
4、不符点扣费和费用条款。
一般来说，不符点扣费是50-60usd，但也有不少是75usd 甚至90美金的。在收到信用证副本时，若发现不符点扣费过高，我们应该及时跟客户沟通反映，就算这次改不了，也争取下一次客户不再用同一个银行。
信用证收费高，尤其是孟加拉客户的信用证，内容多而冗杂，需要多份证明文件，一不小心就会产生不符点，而且往往有的时候不是因为文件不齐而产生不符，而是由于信用证上的某些条款出口商无法做到而产生的不符。因此，在审核信用证时，出口商认真是很重要的，尽量减少扣费，降低出口成本，规避出口风险。
As a kind of international payment, L/C is universally applied in international trade. Because of not believing partners, the buyers worry that the sellers don't deliver the goods according to the contract while the sellers worry that they can not get the payment back after delivery or presenting documents. Therefore, many customers choose L/C as the payment term for the first cooperation with bank as the guarantor, which has replaced business credit with bank credit. However, the cost of L/C is far higher than T/T. There are fee deductions of issuing bank, including document examination fee and mailing charge, usually about dozens of dollars. Sometimes, if not in accordance with the requirement for the L/C, there will be fifty to sixty dollars charge for discrepancy while sometimes it maybe even ninety dollars, so the profit is less and less. If you want to avoid the fee deductions for L/C as much as possible, you should carefully check each item on the L/C, and try to be absolutely correct. The following is my personal experience; I hope can help those who worry about the examination of L/C.
1.Latest Date of Shipment & Date and place of expiry
Firstly, when you receive the L/C copy, you should pay attention of the latest date of shipment & date and place of expiry, to check if your production period that carried out with your customer can keep up with the latest date of shipment, to avoid late delivery of discrepancies and then record the time and timely urge the production and shipment. Do not think it can avoid discrepancies as long as the loading before the latest date of shipment, because the latest date of shipment does not refer to the loading time, but the shipped on board date on B/L, which is generally several days later than the loading time, and it depends on lash bill of loading or mother bill of loading. If it is the mother bill of loading, you have better reserve more than three to five days.
2.Description of goods
Some customers show the model number, quantity, unit price and liter of goods on L/C, which requests us to make documents as shown in the L/C. But notice that we need to check out whether the model name and quantity on the L/C are consistent with the order or not. If have any discrepancy, you should communicate with the customer to avoid discrepancies because of the incongruity of model name or shipping quantity.
3.Documents Required & Additional Conditions
It is the most important thing in examination of L/C, because all requirements for documents are shown in both parts. We must review the details, and be careful not to leave out any document. For example, "beneficiary's signed commercial invoice in octuplicate certifying merchandise to be of China origin" it refers to the beneficiary's signed invoice in octuplicate with the content after "certifying". We should especially pay attention to these words like "certifying" and "certificate" regarding this part, because these are for beneficiary's certificate to the bank.
Moreover, you have better record the requirements of documents presentation on the L/C for more convenient checking.
For the shipping advice, you should understand who should be sent to, in other words, you should know clearly the content after "to". Sometimes, the notify one is the insurance company, agency or opener. So, you must find "the right person" when doing shipping advice.
4.Discrepancy fee & charges
Generally speaking, discrepancy fee is about fifty to sixty dollars, but also seventy-five dollars or even ninety dollars. When receiving the L/C copy, if find the discrepancy fee is too high, we should timely communicate with the customers, even if you can not change this time, we could also ask not to use the same bank for the next time.
The high charges, especially the Bangladesh customers' L/C, with more content and complicated requirements and certificate documents, will produce discrepancies easier, and sometimes, it produces discrepancy not because of the incomplete documents, but due to some clauses on the L/C that exporters cannot match. Therefore, when examining L/C, it's very significant for exporters to be careful so as to minimize the fee deductions, to reduce export cost and to avoid the risk of export.
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