基于专业性的影响，国内很多外贸人在过去很长一段时间里对信用证存有害怕心理。现在，随着外贸人员专业技能的提升，越来越多的中小外贸企业开始接受信用证。当我们拿到信用证后第一步是要看懂信用证类型，即40A FORM OF DOCUMENTARY CREDIT 的内容，一般必须是不可撤销的跟单信用证；第二步就是要审核了，确认是否能顺利执行。
Many foreign traders in China had feared to handle L/C for a long time. Nowadays, as more and more foreign traders become professional, more and more middle and small-sized enterprises begin to accept L/C. When we first receive a L/C, we need to know its type which is the content of 40A FORM OF DOCUMENTARY CREDIT. It’s generally irrevocable documentary L/C. The second step is to examine if it can smoothly work out.
During the audit process, if there are any stipulations that you are unable to finish, you need to inform the bank of rejecting L/C and ask customers to make amendment. You can also inform customers directly.
For stipulations in 46A and 47A, we need to audit them word by word. 46A: DOCUMENTS REQUIRED, 47A: ADDITIONAL CONDITTIONS. We’d better classify carefully the categories of needed documents, copies and demanded things.
59: BENEFICIARY. You should check the name and address of beneficiary. Wrongly written characters are not allowed or the payment will get jammed. And export documents can’t be made for the inconformity.
3、45A、32B
45A： DESCRIPTION OF GOODS AND/OR SERVICE (货物描述)货物的情况，价格条款，看货物品名描述是否过于简单。客户常常在信用证中简略品名，有时候过于笼统，会影响到相关商检单证的出具。
45A： DESCRIPTION OF GOODS AND/OR SERVICE We should check the description of goods and terms of payment to see if the description is too simple. The customers like to simplify the names of products. Sometimes, these are too simple and some related commoditiy inspection can’t be gone through.
32B：CURRENCY CODE AMOUNT We should check if the quanty and total value are right. There are some advance payment and settlement of L/C and in those cases, the products are enough but the amount of money wasn’t enough.
4、44C、48、31D
44C：LATEST DATE OF SHIPMENT（最后装船工期）装船的最迟的日期；44D：SHIPMENT PERIOD (船期)，(44C与44D不能同时出现)。审查交货期是否赶得上，交单期是否合理。
44C：LATEST DATE OF SHIPMENT The lastest date of shipment. 44D：SHIPMENT PERIOD (44C can’t exist with 44D at the same time.) We should check if we can catch up with the date of shipment and if the period for presentation of documents is reasonable.
48：PERIOD FOR PRESENTATION （交单期限）表明开立运输单据后多少天内交单。常见的交单期一般给15天以上，不过香港或日韩东南亚国家的信用证有时候只给12天甚至更短，要考虑清楚。特别是客户指定货代或货代与你不在同一城市的情形，提单容易延误，要预留时间。
48：PERIOD FOR PRESENTATION It indicates how many days left to present documents after drawing shipping documents. The general period for presentation is 15 days or more. But in Hongkong, Japan, Korea and other Southeast Asian countries, there are only 12 days or less. We should take full consideration especially when customers nominated forwarding agents are not in the same city with you. The B/L is likely to get delayed and we should reserve time.
此外，有时候信用证会规定“境外到期”，这一点尽量不要接受，因为我们很难控制文件传递到国外的时间。
Besides, some L/Cs will stipulate that they will expire abroad. Try not to accept this because we can’t control when the documents will be sent abroad.
还有一个特别容易犯的错误，就是要求客户修改交货期或交单期的时候，一定要相应修改信用证有效期。
There is another mistake we easily make that when asking customers to change date of delivery or period for presentation, the validity of L/C must be corresponding.
31D：DATE AND PLACE OF EXPIRY（信用证有效期和有效地点）该日期为最后交单的日期。比如规定10月10日船期，12天交单期，信用证有效期是10月22日。现在更改交单期为15天，却忘记相应更改信用证有效期的话，就会导致“虽然在交单期内交单，却仍逾过信用证有效期”的后果。
31D：DATE AND PLACE OF EXPIRY The date is the final period for presentation. For example, it stipulates that the date of shipment is October 10 and there is 12-day period of presentation and validity of L/C is October 22. And then if the period for presentation is changed to 15 days and if we don’t correspondingly change the validity of L/C. It will result in that the documents are made against the time of presentation but they remain in excess of the validity of L/C.
5、71B
费用分摊是否合理。71B：CHARGES 条款是专门规定信用证操作手续费用分摊的。一般公平些的做法是“申请人境外的费用由受益人承担”，例如：71B: CHARGES ALL BANKING CHARGES OUTSIDE THE OFENING BANK ARE FOR BENEFICIARYS ACCOUNT。
It shows if expense allocation is reasonable. 71B：CHARGES stipulates allocation of expenses. Generally, the charges of applicant from oversea is undertook by beneficiary. Such as: 71B: CHARGES ALL BANKING CHARGES OUTSIDE THE OFENING BANK ARE FOR BENEFICIARYS ACCOUNT
However, now some rigorous customers will ask that beneficiary should undertake all costs apart from issuing charges. This will bring us with extra expenses of tens of thousands of dollars. We should make it clear with customers previously or we could increase our price under the table. We should make sure the documents are in conformity to L/C even though it’s different from physical truth.
