Debt Collection Check

Collection letters are written to make you pay quickly. Many claims are justified, but by no means all the costs. For years consumer advice centres have found inflated fees, account management charges and flat fees in collection letters that are simply not allowed. The Debt Collection Check puts every item next to the law and tells you item by item: fine, check or reject.

It starts with the claim itself. Do you know it, have you already paid, do you think it is wrong or have you never heard of it? Then the tool checks the limitation period: most claims become time-barred after three years, counted from the end of the year in which they arose (§§ 195, 199 BGB). Collection letters do not stop this clock. What does stop or restart it, such as a court payment order or a part payment, the check asks about explicitly.

Next comes default. Interest and collection costs are only owed by someone who was already in default when the agency was hired (§ 286 BGB). As a private person you usually only fall into default through a reminder, a fixed payment date, or after 30 days if the invoice expressly points this out. Without any of that, collection costs and interest are not owed. The check calculates default interest day by day with the official Bundesbank base rate: 5 percentage points above it for private persons, 9 between businesses (§ 288 BGB).

The core is the collection costs. They only have to be reimbursed up to what a lawyer could charge (§ 13e Abs. 1 RDG). For undisputed claims that is usually 0.9 times the fee, only 0.5 times if you pay within two weeks of the first letter, and never more than 1.3 (Nr. 2300 VV RVG). Since 1 June 2025 the new fee table of § 13 RVG under the KostBRÄG 2025 applies: the full fee up to 500 euros is 51.50 euros, for small claims up to 50 euros 31.50 euros. On top comes an expense flat rate of 20 percent, at most 20 euros. For a 300 euro claim that is 55.62 euros in total, not 90 and not 120.

The sender is checked too. Reputable agencies are listed in the public legal services register, lawyers in the lawyers' directory. The first letter to a private person has to name the client, the reason for the claim with contract and date, an interest calculation, a cost breakdown and the supervisory authority (§ 13a RDG). If something is missing, ask for it in writing before you pay. And if a yellow envelope arrives from the local court, the check immediately shows the two-week deadline for the objection and sends you to a consumer advice centre, debt counselling or a lawyer.

At the end you get a clear recommendation: pay, pay the main claim and dispute the costs, dispute everything in writing, or raise the limitation period. The tool builds the matching DIN 5008 letter with your address from the Amtsprofil, to print or as a PDF for the Aktenschrank, and you add the reply deadline to the deadline tracker with one click. Everything runs in your browser. The Debt Collection Check is not legal advice and does not replace a lawyer or a consumer advice centre; it helps you understand the letter and prepare your reply yourself.