Debt collection letter

A debt collection letter is a letter that you, as a debt collection company, lawyer or creditor, send to a debtor regarding one or more claims that you wish to collect. The collection letter states that if payment is not received within 10 days from today's date, the case will be transferred to debt collection.

The debt collection letter is often also called a debt collection letter, debt collection notice, demand letter or §10 letter.

There is no legally correct term for the concept, but according to the Debt Collection Act, the debt collection letter is called a "notice of debt collection", which is precisely the purpose of the debt collection letter. In other words, there are no formal requirements for what you call your debt collection letter, as long as the content is correct, the debtor has been given the correct payment deadline and the debtor is clearly aware of what money is owed.

What is a debt collection letter?

A debt collection letter is basically about informing a debtor that you, as a creditor, lawyer(debt collection lawyer) or debt collection company, have one or more financial balances to be paid, and if this is not done, the debtor is informed that the case may go to debt collection.

There are no formal requirements as to who sends the debt collection letter. In principle, it can be the company itself or it can be the company's debt collection company or lawyer. However, the most important thing is that it is done and that all formalities and requirements for the debt collection letter are complied with.

However, it is important that the debtor is clearly made aware of what is owed and that the debtor is given at least 10 days to pay.

Here at Collectia, we recommend that you make use of our debt collection letter template. In this way, you ensure a good framework for what the debt collection letter can and should contain. If the debtor is not given a deadline of at least 10 days, you risk that your letter is not legally correct and is thus invalid. 

Example of a debt collection letter

There are no legally correct formalities or requirements for the design, layout or layout of a debt collection letter. There are many good examples of a debt collection letter online, which we recommend you use if you have never sent a letter before.

There are also some ERP and accounting programs that have debt collection letters built in, so your accounting program can help you create a correct version with correct deadlines, content and text.

Here at Collectia, we have of course prepared an example of a debt collection letter, which you can find as a template. The template is free and does not require you to be a customer with us.

Debt collection letter template

If you need a template for your debt collection letters, we have created one that you can download free of charge. Of course, it complies with all legal formalities and requirements. The template requires you to fill in the correct information and give the debtor at least 10 days to pay the debt.