How to claim a debt out of court?
Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2025 6:51 am
If you are a business owner, self-employed or freelancer, you will know that collecting invoices is not always an easy task. In fact, we have already seen in other articles that the legal deadline for collecting and paying invoices is 30 days (60 if it is by mutual agreement between the parties). However, the reality is that some clients take much longer to pay us. That is why we need to know how to claim a debt out of court , since we must exhaust these avenues before going to court.
Claiming a debt out of court
It is our duty (at least if we want to collect) to prevent late payments. We have already talked about this in our article “ 4 tricks to collect your invoices as soon as possible ”. In general, we must give our clients payment facilities and investigate them before starting to work with them.
Although the probability of payment will increase significantly, these tricks will not be 100% effective. Therefore, we need to know what the procedures are for claiming a debt out of court. In this way, we will avoid as much as possible the need to resort to the courts , with the cost of time and money that this entails.
Generally, we can use the following 3 indonesia number data techniques. Always in the order indicated here, since we go from the most to the least friendly.
Telephone or personal contact.
Friendly letter by email or traditional mail.
Payment request by burofax.
Remember that all of these methods are amicable . We are trying to reach an agreement to avoid a trial. Therefore, we must bear in mind that these procedures have a great psychological factor. We will try to get the debtor to acknowledge the debt and pay us in the shortest time possible.
Now we are going to look at each of them in more detail.
1. Telephone or personal contact
The first step is to establish personal contact with the debtor, either by phone or in person. Let's imagine that the bill has already expired but we have not yet received the agreed amount. It is common sense that before getting angry and starting to send payment notices, we pick up the phone and let him know that he has an unpaid bill.
Because forgetfulness and oversights are much more frequent than we can think. Always with a friendly tone , speaking naturally and without using aggressive or ironic tones, we will inform him of the amount owed and the payment method. We can even arrange an appointment with him to regularize the situation.
Never use words with negative connotations such as "delinquent", "debtor" or "debt". Talk to him about an "overdue bill", a "collection incident" or "delay in payment".
2. Friendly letter
We have already spoken to the debtor in person but we still haven't received the corresponding payment. If this happens, the second step is to send him a friendly letter or email. Be careful because we must still maintain a cordial and friendly tone .
The content of the letter should indicate something like: "There is no problem, my intention is to inform you that there is an overdue invoice. If you have any questions or need any clarification, you can contact me."
The message we should convey will be what we already communicated by phone in the previous step. We will inform him that there is a delay in payment and we will indicate our desire to regularize the situation. The letter should include.
Claiming a debt out of court
It is our duty (at least if we want to collect) to prevent late payments. We have already talked about this in our article “ 4 tricks to collect your invoices as soon as possible ”. In general, we must give our clients payment facilities and investigate them before starting to work with them.
Although the probability of payment will increase significantly, these tricks will not be 100% effective. Therefore, we need to know what the procedures are for claiming a debt out of court. In this way, we will avoid as much as possible the need to resort to the courts , with the cost of time and money that this entails.
Generally, we can use the following 3 indonesia number data techniques. Always in the order indicated here, since we go from the most to the least friendly.
Telephone or personal contact.
Friendly letter by email or traditional mail.
Payment request by burofax.
Remember that all of these methods are amicable . We are trying to reach an agreement to avoid a trial. Therefore, we must bear in mind that these procedures have a great psychological factor. We will try to get the debtor to acknowledge the debt and pay us in the shortest time possible.
Now we are going to look at each of them in more detail.
1. Telephone or personal contact
The first step is to establish personal contact with the debtor, either by phone or in person. Let's imagine that the bill has already expired but we have not yet received the agreed amount. It is common sense that before getting angry and starting to send payment notices, we pick up the phone and let him know that he has an unpaid bill.
Because forgetfulness and oversights are much more frequent than we can think. Always with a friendly tone , speaking naturally and without using aggressive or ironic tones, we will inform him of the amount owed and the payment method. We can even arrange an appointment with him to regularize the situation.
Never use words with negative connotations such as "delinquent", "debtor" or "debt". Talk to him about an "overdue bill", a "collection incident" or "delay in payment".
2. Friendly letter
We have already spoken to the debtor in person but we still haven't received the corresponding payment. If this happens, the second step is to send him a friendly letter or email. Be careful because we must still maintain a cordial and friendly tone .
The content of the letter should indicate something like: "There is no problem, my intention is to inform you that there is an overdue invoice. If you have any questions or need any clarification, you can contact me."
The message we should convey will be what we already communicated by phone in the previous step. We will inform him that there is a delay in payment and we will indicate our desire to regularize the situation. The letter should include.